101) he said in regard to variations generally that we should not expect
to find them conspicuous; their frequency would be enough, if they could
be accumulated. The same applies here, if stirring events that occur to
the somatic cells can produce any effect at all on offspring. A very
small effect, provided it can be repeated and accumulated in successive
generations, is all that even the most exacting Lamarckian will ask for.

Having now made the reader acquainted with the position taken by the
leading Charles-Darwinian authorities, I will return to Professor
Weismann himself, who declares that the transmission of acquired
characters "at first sight certainly seems necessary," and that "it
appears rash to attempt to dispense with its aid." He continues:--

"Many phenomena only appear to be intelligible if we assume the
hereditary transmission of such acquired characters as the changes which
we ascribe to the use or disuse of particular organs, or to the direct
influence of climate. Furthermore, how can we explain instinct as
hereditary habit, unless it has gradually arisen by the accumulation,
through heredity, of habits which were practised in succeeding
generations?" {33}

I may say in passing that Professor Weismann appears to suppose that the
view of instinct just given is part of the Charles-Darwinian system, for
on page 889 of his book he says "that many observers had followed Darwin
in explaining them [instincts] as inherited habits." This was not Mr.
Darwin's own view of the matter. He wrote:--

"If we suppose any habitual action to become inherited--and I think it
can be shown that this does sometimes happen--then the resemblance
between what originally was a habit and an instinct becomes so close as
not to be distinguished. . . But it would be the most serious error to
suppose that the greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit
in one generation, and then transmitted by inheritance to succeeding
generations. It can be clearly shown that the most wonderful instincts
with which we are acquainted, namely, those of the hive-bee and of many
ants, could not possibly have been thus acquired."--["Origin of Species,"
ed., 1859, p. 209.]

Again we read: "Domestic instincts are sometimes spoken of as actions
which have become inherited solely from long-continued and compulsory
habit, but this, I think, is not true."--_Ibid._, p. 214.

Again: "I am surprised that no one has advanced this demon