10 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



Chapter XIV 



PAGE 



Control. Arrest 122 



Control, and the preservation of Identity and Equilibrium — Atomic, 

 plasmofecular, and nuclear control — Control in the ascending scale 

 of Individual Continuity — Control cannot obtain apart from Con- 

 tinuity. 



Arrest — Fundamentally, Environment produces Arrest — The 

 limits to Environment's powers — The different ways in which Arrest 

 is manifested — Temporary and Permanent Arrest — Nature is 

 really not prodigal ; in all but lower forms of Life, she arrests 

 more than she releases from Arrest — The evolution of the fixed 

 cell-species — Breach of Continuity and Release from Arrest — 

 Restoration of lost parts — The interesting case of Amphioxus. 



Chapter XV 



Heredity. Natural and Acquired Variations . . 133 



Theory of transmission of parental characters — Always Variation 

 in offspring — The two chief classes of Variations ; the Natural, 

 and the Acquired. 



Natural Variations ; three main forms — Sex possibly a matter of 

 natural variation — Fertilisation involves Variation. 

 Acquired Variations — The acquisition of a variation is essentially 

 a sudden process — Environment the basic factor at work in the 

 acquisition of variations — Every acquired variation is " adaptive," 

 and useful for life in the environmental conditions which produced 

 it — Acquisition of variation implies environmental change of some 

 sort — All natural characters originated in acquired variation — 

 Life began as acquired variation — The basic variations acquired 

 by Life were the successive multiplications of Continuity. 

 Transmission of Acquired Variations — Reasons for holding that 

 it can occur and has occurred — The case of the Tortoiseshell 

 butterfly — For a variation to be acquired the modifying force 

 must aot during development — Experimental evidence that acquired 

 variations can reappear in the offspring — Quoted explanation not 

 satisfactory — The earlier the application of the modifying force on 

 the devoloping growth-cycle, the more correct ought to be the 

 " transmission " of the resulting variations — A useless variation 

 cannot be acquired — Recapitulation. 



Chapter XVI 



The Evolution of Continuity 147 



We must distinguish (1) the evolution of the different types of 

 living Continuity from (2) the evolution of different species within 

 each Continuity-type — Present chapter deals with former question 

 — Probability that the main road of evolution, leading to Man, 

 has not passed through any of the organisms actually known to 

 us, past or present — The testimony of the rocks throws little light 

 on the Evolution of Continuity — It is to the living world of the 

 present time that we must turn for information. 

 The formation of the Globe ; a process of Continuity-intensifi- 

 cation — The " Nebular Hypothesis " — The alternation of Attraction 

 and Repulsion — The appearance of the first life on the globe must 

 have marked a stage in the evolution of Continuity — The Living 

 evolved from the inorganic — Primitive Life enjoyed an aqueous 

 environment — At the present day the waters of the globe provide 

 examples of living Continuity whioh clearly indicate the past main 

 road of Evolution — This road ran in an aqueous environment right 



