Show Theory The Off of oft Off Evolution vol uti tion on as It Is Accepted A ted Today fly By 6 G Archibald A Reid i is said sid to occur ocr when a species undergoes a und I progressive and adaptive change as a for fO exam example ex pie pit when hen during durn the O course eW oC DC Q gener geer generations r rat at Ions the wings t of a species ao of bird grow gow stronger larger la and a better adapt adapted ap ed e for flight During Durin the p i it is plain p that tt succeeding generations must must in cur suc succession u cession Sl on become bome superior npr to those th which preceded them The Te whole problem of f p evolution hinges Ine on o the question que lon In what hat way vay is this thid improvement erected effected I j By fly what method Only two theories of evolution an ar a aI er or even thinkable because I he first formally oUy enunciated it I gave his h ume to the t one theory tho liar TIar Dr Ms his to win for the name reason gave the other otherL L th The Ilie two t theories therie ran can be explained best by illustrations drawn draw n from tro j anina anim we rid but bt It is necessary to define two twit tw important terms All Al the characters of ot ota ofa 1 a living being every enry physical structure St t rue c ture and every mental trait nay may bo he I placed pined in one of ot two I Either they are inborn or they are area a An Inborn n or innate hara harac har i itel ter tel is bI one which in jn common p 1 arises ar in the 1 by br stature Thus Thum arms legs eyes e es ears head etc ftc are alt all inborn born characters The child inherits them from his parent But if it during its ItA development or after the completion of the development any one rne e Of o the inborn characters d of an individual ual is modified modi ed by b some occurrences the 1 change han e thus product produced d is in known as an acquire acquired character or ur shortly as a an quit ment Thus all aU the effects of f xer ise are ac for x the enlarge enlargement ment meat which exercise E causes c uses in ID muscle The effects of jark aek of exercise are also ato acquirements for tor example the wasting waiting of a disused ed muscle Th The effects of injury are art acquire acquirements meats ments for example the h a ia in a diseased ed lung or injured arm aim m T modification of the mind Is to also aso an aD ac acquirement for example ample f e stored tOrM within the memory If It a man be blinded by y accident or disease his blindness is But if hr hI come into the world blind if I be he hebe bebe I Ibe be t nd ml by nature his blindness is r born bona If a son be naturally smaller than t n his b father then his inferiority of oC si size e is b Inborn but hut if It his growth be stunted by ill HI health ot oc lack of nour nourishment I or exercise e e his inferiority is s I acquired held as people in ill all ages have held that characters acquired by parents ts are also aleo transmissible to some ome extent and that evolution results from I their accentuation during succeeding generations La theory is 18 re rejected rejected rejected totally by the modern modem followers ef f Darwin They deny that acquire acquirements acquirements I ments are ever transmitted from parent to offspring oft pring and assign Sign quite a different t cause ause for evolution Even EVeD at the cost of some seine repetition it is worth our white while to dwell a little on this th point When It is understood the rest of this essay RY eI will wilt present few difficulties los ies losIf If It as an alleged a child inherits inherits its his bis fathers acquirement it must follow folio that t he be differs from his bis father In that he has inborn the peculiarity which the parent acquired He differs at birth from what hat his father was at birth He Hf therefore makes a different start stan In life Suppose for instance tance ln an athlete developed his muscles to an ab abnormal abnormal abnormal normal degree fk gr by taking more than a normal amount cf cC exercise Then if the child of this man Inherited hi his blk fa fathers father ther thees muscular acquirement he be would develop the abnormal muscles without taking akin the more than normal exercise le leWbell When a child hUd differs Innately from his parent the difference is la termed by biologists a variation then believed that variations arise ari e through I the transmission of parental acquire acquirements ments menta to the child bUd and that evolution results from the repetition of this pro process coca cess during succeeding generations But even if were right even If the t transmission miRlon of 01 acquire acquirements acquirements ments meats be he admitted it is still certain that all inborn differences between parent punt and aad child cannot be attributed to this cause cuie For Foe instance a child may be born m with peculiarities of oj which h the parent had bad never nevar a trace trac tra for fol example a mole on the face The child of or a natural athlete who has hU trained himself to the point of perfection may be a natural na tural weakling The child of a sedentary parent may have bave in him the makings of an ath athlete athlete athlete I lete Most convincing fact tact of all aU the I members of a litter JItter of ot puppies often differ greatly were wece parental acquire acquirements acquirements acquirements ments the th ale sOe 8 e causes of variations in inthe inthe inthe the offspring the puppies would from the nature of oC the case calle be all aU exactly alike aUke for they would all inherit the same acquirements I It is 18 clear therefore that offspring may be superior or 01 inferior to their parents as regards any particular from causes ea other than the Ute transmission trAn m Ia I shin sion of acquirements On that indubitable i I able fact fat Darwin founded f tId his theory of evolution Darwin accepted ac t theory eory so far as eg it went Ha H thought that nature l lak he the selected to continue the rac ra raCe individuals who were we accidentally 0 superior while she site eliminated ell the tile accidentally inferior The world has hu progressed Pt re ll since 8 inc Dar wins day A eb has arisen I which out Herod lila His modern modem followers the declare declue I that Darwin with characteristic modesty mod modesty i esty e ty underrated underrate 1 his bIn own great die dis discovery cover coven I They insist marck was wholly wrong that acquired characters are I never transmitted 1 ng that therefore theory of only par partially I explaining the facts t of evolution wholly explains thorn t em I The reader win nets nol that thai Darwin merely accepted the Indubitable fact fad i I that offspring differ dUler rm 11 their parents par parents in that they th arc superior or in inferior InI tenor and founded hip h hI theory on the I supposition lUon that as a general ge rule the superior individuate Individuals are by byI nature to continue ue the Ute race He did not attempt by big It theory to explain I how the differences did more He assigned a 1 particular cause ca tot TOE the tb differences He Hp I supposed that parents transmitted their acquirements to offspring and on that supposition founded foU ed his theory of evolution Let us now return to our illustrations The followers follower a of LaI attribute the long neck of c the giraffe to the transmitted effects ef ts of 01 stretching They think that ancestral giraffes lengthened their necks by b stretching upward and that this acquirement be being beIng being I ing transmitted and increased in sub subsequent subsequent subsequent sequent generation generations resulted in evo evolution lotion lution on the other hand contend that the change was due solely to the survival of these individuals I which had bad naturally the longer necks n ks They suppose that in times Umes of I drought when wilen food was scarce the Use I shorter giraffes perished because e they were less leu able than the taller U tAt in reach raca the higher leaves of trees The taller thus alone continued the race ruee and anti this process plO repeated during long Jong ages a and many generations resulted in hi the thelong thelong long neck of the modern animal Laman believe that thab hares baRS run swiftly because their efforts at swift running developed the appropriate structures tures and this improvement imro ment mentI transmitted and increased generation I after generation resulted at last Jast i in that very swift animal the modern I hare bare contend that the great speed of or hares i due to the i fact that these e animals who were rere na n naturally naI I the swiftest escaped cape e their en enemies enI t I emles and that by this means mans during durl the process of ages was the swift mod modern modern modern ern hare bare evolved say HaY that a II naturally tall man tends to have bae tall tan children but that no matter how bow a i man is stretched or how bow he stretches es himself his children will not be tidier taller In the smallest degree for the 1 stretching affirm aMm that wilk S maintain that If a ablack I blacksmith black mith increases esthe the size of oC his Ida muscles by labor his hili children will thereby profit and have stronger mus mits muscle musI I des cle than they otherwise we hI have I had deny this La LaI affirm that if IC a man de tie develops develops his brains by study his is children I will have better brains braiDS tor for this pro pre process cess This Thill again deny dany denyI maintain tit Chat if iCa a man I has hafl children and then sEer after I falling into int has bas more the latter will be more feeble than th the be former This yet again is denied by Examined closely ely clo it will be sf en that the th two theories are violently opposed No breeder of plants and an animals am to is able to improve his stock unless be he breeds with care unless he exercises stringent selection Race horses bores for example could not have been evolved by bv the occasional elimination of an in inferior interior Inferior animal All or most Inferior an animate anImals had to be eliminated I Ione It follows that a breeder cannot at atone atone one and the same time improve a species des cies in every or even in many dime directions I tiona he must be content with im lm improvement provement in a very few particulars I only I If It lie be sought ht improvement in many directions in size sire in strength in speed p in endurance and hardiness in beauty of or color and form in m sight eight in scent in hearing and so 80 forth so few I would be excellent at once in all these particulars that if he at attempted attempted attempted tempted selection tIlI in all he M would ex cx exterminate terminate rather than improve hia is 18 stock He Ht therefore deals with a few char har characters characters a only and as regards all aU other characters eliminates only such ani ant animals mals mala as are plainly inferior to the av average avI average If the doctrine I be true the same name thing thin must occur in iii nature In that ease case wild plants and I animals could not undergo evolution in inmany Inmany inmany many directions at the same time I It tIt be argued that th the higher r plants and aDd animals are ver very complex I and that all their thousand parts must all aU lt have undergone evolution This is 18 true they have nave certainly all under undergone undergone gone evolution but not all aU at the same time For thousands of years the eyes yu the ears the hands bands the foot feet fet II and very many of the oth ot other r characters of ot man for instance have undergone I no appreciable lable evolution They were evolved during different but overlap overlapping overlapping ping pia periods of or a long Ion extended past pastI I have said Mid that no sane man can ean doubt the reality of evolution We may now go gu further and declare that it is 18 not possible for lor any sane man to toI I withhold a limited adherence adhere e to Dar wins win explanation of it The proofs furnished by breeders b dertl are too ron eon conclusive elusive clu w wIt It Ii i quite beyond dispute di that off oft offspring offspring spring sprint differ innately from their par eats Cuts that these theae innate differences these variations are transmissible to descendants and that if advantage be betaken betaken betaken taken of them by selecting for breed breeding breeding ing lug purposes the superior sU individuate individuals while the rest are eliminated evolution evolution evolution tion will result The only point we have yet et to prove is that nature like e the breeder exer exercises claus the necessary selection s At first sight doctrine also seems true Thus it appears only onh reasonable to suppose that the tb children of a man fallen ill will be the weaker in conic conse consequence quence quene of his acquired feebleness or o that the children of a man made hard and strong by exercise will be the stronger for his improved health The Lamarckian school is rapidly be m becoming becoming coming extinct in the scientific world It flourishes however among amon the gen gets general general eral public who though they may never have heard of give to his theory unquestioning adherence ProbablY many many of my readers ders are now thinking of instances within their knowledge which they be believe believe lieve prove the transmission of ac acquired acquired acquired characters This is not the place in which to tod discuss d cuss the physiological bearings of the th question but In fact there is no noway noway way in which acquirements could be transmitted Did transmissions occur it would w uld be a magical act transcending everything we know kno of nature AH AU these cases of alleged transmission sInn sion of which readers are perhaps thinking are I venture to believe mere coincidences Thus for instance nce if they sire uro thinking of some man they have heard of who broke a finger and afterward had bad a son SOI with a crooked finger Ten thousand tho men might break their fingers yet among their offspring not one might have a crooked finger linger Con Consider Consider sider aider on the other hand for how many man generations oRs women have bored their ears ear and aM nose in India Yet when is I a girt girl born bora with ears and nose already dy pIerced For Ilor how bow many tany generations ha have e we amputated the tails tans of ter tar terriers riots and a d yet ret their MAr tails taUs are no shorter It will then be perceived how bow overwhelming is the case against a the doctrine of the thO transmission of ac acquirements The general question of the trans trana mission of acquirements it too big ble bi and too abstruse to be treated adequately here Two arguments more I may use however partly because they the have bave not been developed to my knowledge e by other writers and partly because they tb y seem to me decisive The Themore Themore Themore more than normal development of the blacksmiths arm ann is rightfully called an acquired trait since it arises aslies from exercise from use u not nt front from germinal conditions But no infants arm ann de do develops develops into an ordinary adult arm w t exercise e similar in kind to that which develops the blacksmiths arm though less lesII in degree ee When W n nothing is 18 acquired no acquire acquirement mont ment can be transmitted The same MIne arguments argument apply to mud mind At birth the infants mind is a blank His sub subsequent subsequent sequent mental acquirements are im ha immense immense mense memo Every single BIngle thing contained within the memory of man every single ainge word of a language for instance is aa an ac acquirement acquirement acquirement But when are the con contents contents contents tents of a parents mind transmitted to the child Again a man is capable of becom becoming becomIng becoming ing a parent at any time between ex cx extreme extreme youth and extreme old age ap a woman wc man from the age of 13 to 14 H tilt tin |