THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 19 



reasonable to suppose that the children of a man 

 fallen ill will be the weaker in consequence of his 

 acquired feebleness, or that the children of a man 

 made hard and strong by exercise will be the 

 stronger for his improved health. Nevertheless, 

 during the last twenty years a vast mass of evidence 

 has been collected, which, in the opinion of most 

 thinkers acquainted with the facts, absolutely dis- 

 proves this assumption. The Lamarckian school is 

 rapidly becoming extinct in the scientific world. It 

 flourishes, however, among the general public, who, 

 though they may never have heard of Lamarck, 

 give to his theory unquestioning adherence. 



Probably many of my non-biological readers are 

 now thinking of instances within their knowledge 

 which they believe prove the transmission of 

 acquired characters. But let me repeat that though 

 for years this problem has engaged the unremitting 

 attention of many of the acutest and best-instructed 

 intellects in the world, that though the battle on 

 this question has raged everywhere — in Europe, in 

 America, in Australia, in Japan — that though the 

 whole plant and animal kingdoms have been ran- 

 sacked, yet no single indisputable instance of the 

 transmission of an acquirement has been proved. 

 This is not the place in which to discuss the 

 physiological bearings of the question, but, in fact, 

 there is no way in which acquirements could be 



