47 
[Jeffries. 
who moves from the lowlands to the highlands. The change can- 
not be explained by the assumption that the physiological powers 
are, so to speak, latent in the organism, and only need to be called 
upon to come into play. Were this the case the emigrant should 
at once take on the type of breathing of the mountaineer ; that is, 
a full, long, deep breath. This he does not do. The first change 
is in the direction of rapid, shallow breathing, then comes a long 
period of rapid pulse and lastly the respiration becomes deep, the 
heart slows up and the final type of respiration is reached. 
This change is not according to Lamarck’s law of habit, since 
the change of habit induced by the change of surroundings, that 
is, quick breath and rapid pulse, should survive and must be accred- 
ited to direct physico-chemical forces. 
Lamarck’s idea that a new necessity can call a new organ into 
existence by any sort of effort of the organism is to the writer’s 
mind untenable. Yet outside forces must cause the first formation 
of new organs if laws to evolve inherent in life are denied. They 
are probably evolved under the law laid down by Lamarck for 
plants. 
Among plants Lamarck held that the changes were the result of 
changes wrought by the surroundings on nutrition, and cites the 
case of Ranunculus aquatalis which has totally different shapes ac- 
cording as it grows on water or on land. No proof is given that 
the character is hereditary ; the point is assumed. 
Just as among animals we need a case (one case is worth a hun- 
dred coincidences, where change wrought by change of surround- 
ings is constant) when the descendants are brought back to the 
first conditions. Can any such case be cited, proved? Most say 
no, and proceed to refute every example suggested. Yet there is a 
class of phenomena, much talked of during the last few years, 
which look strangely like the desired example. The methods of 
preventive inoculation and the increase and decrease in the viru- 
lence of bacteria according to the conditions of growth seem to fill 
the requisites. 
The anthrax bacterium, which normally kills a great variety of 
animals, can by changes in the conditions of growth be made harm- 
less. Thus the bacterium may be isolated from an animal dead of 
the disease and two cultures made and continued on the same me- 
dium, one at the temperature of a room and the other at a higher 
temperature. Now inoculate two sets of animals with the cultures ; 
