by the action of the fundamental laws of growth. Admitting that such laws have determined some of the main divisions of the animal and vegetable kingdom, have originated certain important organs, and have been the fundamental cause of certain lines of development, yet at every step of the process these laws must have acted in entire subordination to the law of natural selection. No modification thus initiated could have advanced a single step, unless it were, on the whole, a useful modification; while its entire future course would be necessarily subject to the laws of variation and selection, by which it would be sometimes checked, sometimes hastened on, sometimes diverted to one purpose, sometimes to another, according as the needs of the organism, under the special conditions of its existence, required such modification. We need not deny that such laws and influences may have acted in the manner suggested, but what we do deny is that they could possibly escape from the ever-present and all-powerful modifying effects of variation and natural selection.[1]
Weismann's Theory of Heredity.
Professor August Weismann has put forth a new theory of heredity founded upon the "continuity of the germ-plasm," one of the logical consequences of which is, that acquired characters of whatever kind are not transmitted from parent to offspring. As this is a matter of vital importance to the theory of natural selection, and as, if well founded, it strikes away the foundations of most of the theories discussed in the present chapter, a brief outline of Weismann's views must be attempted,
- ↑ In an essay on "The Duration of Life," forming part of the translation of Dr. Weismann's papers already referred to, the author still further extends the sphere of natural selection by showing that the average duration of life in each species has been determined by it. A certain length of life is essential in order that the species may produce offspring sufficient to ensure its continuance under the most unfavourable conditions; and it is shown that the remarkable inequalities of longevity in different species and groups may be thus accounted for. Yet more, the occurrence of death in the higher organisms, in place of the continued survival of the unicellular organisms however much they may increase by subdivision, may be traced to the same great law of utility for the race and survival of the fittest. The whole essay is of exceeding interest, and will repay a careful perusal. A similar idea occurred to the present writer about twenty years back, and was briefly noted down at the time, but subsequently forgotten.
