Inheritance of Acquired Characters 231 



experimental test, and it is astonishing to find that, with 

 the immense amount that has been written by his followers, 

 so few attempts have been made to give the theory a thorough 

 test. The few results that have been obtained are not, how- 

 ever, favorable to the theory, but almost the only attempts at 

 experiment that have been made in this direction have been 

 those of mutilating certain parts ; and were it not for popu- 

 lar belief to the effect that such mutilations are inherited, 

 one would least expect to get evidence for or against the 

 theory in this direction. Lamarck himself believed that the 

 changes were slowly acquired, and I think modern Lamarck- 

 ians are justified in claiming that the validity of the theory 

 can only be tested by experiments in which the organism is 

 subjected to influences extending over a considerable period, 

 although Lamarck appears to have believed that the first 

 results may appear quite soon. Before expressing any 

 opinion in regard to the probability of the theory, let us 

 examine what the followers of Lamarck have contributed in 

 the way of evidence to the theory, rather than the applica- 

 tions that they have made of the theory. We shall also find 

 it profitable to consider some of the modern criticism, to which 

 the theory has been subjected. 



Despite the contempt with which Darwin referred to 

 Lamarck's theory, he himself, as we have seen, often made 

 use of the principle of the inheritance of acquired characters, 

 and even employed the same illustrations cited by Lamarck. 

 Darwin seems to have misunderstood Lamarck's view, and 

 to have accepted the current opinion that Lamarck sup- 

 posed an animal acquired a new organ by desiring or need- 

 ing it. Darwin says, " Heaven forefend me from Lamarck's 

 nonsense of a tendency to progressive adaptation from 

 the slow willing of the animals." Darwin speaks of La- 

 marck as stating that animals will that the egg shall be 

 a particular form so as to become attached to particular 

 objects. Lamarck's latest biographer, Packard, says he is 



