138 INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



over the ischial tuberosity of the ischium in a dog a whorl is 

 pointed out. This is corrected in Chapter VI. on the Dogs. 



These three are the only errors of any importance that I 

 acknowledge at once. A certain number of minor points are 

 questioned in the Review, and the theoretical portion is strongly 

 criticised. It would be irrelevant to the main purpose of a book 

 which is limited to the su bj ect of Habit and Hair Direction in Animals 

 to introduce some of the more debateable branches of the subject 

 of the former book, such as tufts, the direction of the hair on the 

 mole, the classification of the hair-streams of the mammalian body 

 into primitive, those modified by morphological change, and those 

 due to use and habit. This last is a very wide subject and is far 

 beyond the present limits. 



I freely make another acknowledgment. The whole of the 

 subject of the Direction of Hair in Animals and Man was taken up 

 ad hoc, that is to say, for the purpose of testing the unpopular 

 doctrine of Lamarckism. If this be an offence against the highest 

 spirit of science, I can but accept the charge with a sigh, and go on, 

 " faint yet pursuing." There is consolation in finding that increased 

 study of a subject is bringing order out of chaos, even if the field 

 be small and the immediate crop poor. 



The following are some of the objections raised to the theoretical 

 part of the book : — 



The most serious charge against my interpretation of the mode 

 of formation of patterns (whorls and tufts) is that there is a lack 

 of harmony between my preliminary statement that whorls are 

 due to motor or muscular causes and a subsequent explanation of 

 some of them as due to external pressure. I did not state then as 

 clearly as I do now in many passages in the present chapters that 

 for pattern production there may be at least four causes : friction, 

 pressure, gravity, underlying muscular traction, and that whorls 

 and featherings may, of course, arise from some other external 

 force acting on the hair at the decisive point of struggle, just as 

 well as from the more common cause — muscular traction on the 

 skin. I think in this region of the Review and where she deals 

 with Selection, she shows signs of that scientific monism which is 

 still affecting many of our great biologists, that is to say, they desire 

 a world-empire in evolution for the great factor of Selection, and 

 will stretch their arguments considerably to save its face. This 

 is shown in the Review on page 406 where a very thin plea is put 

 in on behalf of adaptation and Selection in regard to hair-directions, 

 as in man's minute hairs, which cannot be seriously maintained. 

 That earth is stopped ! 



