Summary. 115 



reasons for disbelieving. And inasmuch as these two 

 latter, or distinctive, postulates are not needed for 

 Weismann's theory of heredity, while they are both 

 essential to his theory of evolution, I cannot but 

 regret that he should thus have crippled the former 

 by burdening it with the latter. Hence my object 

 throughout has been to display, as sharply as possible, 

 the contrast that is presented between the brass 

 and the clay in the colossal figure which Weismann 

 has constructed. Hence, also, my emphatic dissent 

 from his theory of evolution does not prevent me 

 from sincerely appreciating the great value which 

 attaches to his theory of heredity. And although I have 

 not hesitated to say that this theory is, in my opinion, 

 incomplete ; that it presents not a few manifest 

 inconsistencies, and even logical contradictions ; that 

 the facts on which it is founded have always been facts 

 of general knowledge ; that in all its main features it 

 was present to the mind of Darwin, and distinctly 

 formulated by Galton ; that in so far as it has been 

 constituted the basis of a more general theory of 

 organic evolution, it has clearly proved a failure : — 

 such considerations in no wise diminish my cordial 

 recognition of the services which its distinguished 

 author has rendered to science by his speculations 

 upon these topics. For not only has he been suc- 

 cessful in drawing renewed and much more general 

 attention to the important questions touching the 

 transmissibility of acquired characters, the causes of 

 variation, and so on ; but even those parts of his 

 system which have proved untenable are not without 

 such value as temporary scaffoldings present in re- 

 lation to permanent buildings. Therefore, if I have 



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