I’he Ohio V^aturalist, 
PUBLISHED BY 
The Biological Club of the Ohio State Uni<versity. 
Volume IV. DECEMBER, 1903. No. 2. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Mor?e— T he Transmission of Acquired Ciiaractcr' 25 
ScHAFFNEK— Notes Oil the Nutation of Plants 30 
SciiAFFNEii-Poisonous and Other Injurious Plants of Ohio (continued).- 32 
Osborn -.tradidac of Ohio 30 
Osborn— A Subterranean Boot— Infesting Fidgorid 42 
Osborn— N ew Species of Ohio Fulgoridae. .. . 44 
News and Notes 47 
CoBERLY— Meetings of the Biological Olub 47 
THE TRANSMISSION OF ACOUIRED CHARAC= 
TERS.* 
Max Morse. 
I shall invite your attention this evening to a theme which like 
the poor, “Ye have always with you.” It is the old question 
whether the changes in the growing organism, or the adult, pro- 
duced by the direct action of the environment about it, are carried, 
through heredity, to the off,spring. Jean Lamark first used the 
term “ acquired character” to designate characters such as these 
and to him are we to look for the first clear statement of the case. 
By this it is not to be understood that the idea of the transmis- 
sion of acquired characters arose with Lamark. No great gener- 
alization ever arose or ever can ari.se with one man alone. The 
attribution of the idea of the transmission of acquired characters 
to Lamark falls in the same category as attributing evolution to 
Darwin. And as Darwin first attempted to anstcer the question 
how organisms change, Lamark first raised the question how they 
change at all. The Greeks in the dawn of history accounted for 
diversity in living forms by the direct effect of environment. 
Indeed, not until the time of Darwin was there a rival theory 
advanced And we can easil}’ see the reason for this when we 
consider the directness and naivete of the transmission theory as 
against the negative action of selection. The history of science 
shows that hypotheses created as explanations of natural phe- 
nomena are at first simple and that it is only when the plienomena 
ure better understood that the h3'pothe.ses become more complex. 
Tlie Corpuscular Theorv^ of light in Newton’s sen.se sufficed fora 
’■'Presidential Address, liiological Club, Nov. 2 , 1903 . 
