ible fact, that the hereditary
transmission of acquired characters has in no way been proved. On the
contrary after it had at first received a general tacit recognition and
was postulated by Lamarck, Darwin and Haeckel, it was denied by
Weismann. Wagner asserts "that the number of those who have allied
themselves with Weismann in this matter is obviously on the increase as
is naturally the case, since, to the present day not a single
incontestable case of hereditary transmission of acquired characters
has been demonstrated, where as actual facts are at hand to prove the
contrary."

It is perfectly evident that the doctrine that acquired characters are
not inherited is fatal to Darwinism. Hence Wagner rightly considers its
ascendancy a notable factor in bringing about the decay of Darwinism.

Finally, Wagner briefly indicates that certain new theories necessarily
exercised an influence on Darwinism. Haeckel and the palaeontologists
of North America supplemented it with a number of Lamarckian elements
without alteration of its essential principles (the Neo-Lamarckians);
Eimer regards the transmission of acquired characters as an established
fact, but rejects natural selection as wholly worthless; Weismann, on
the contrary, denies the transmission of acquired characters, but
nevertheless regards natural selection as the main factor in the
formation of species (the theory of the Neo-Darwinians). Eimer speaks
of the impotence of natural selection, Weismann of its omnipotence. All
this has shaken men's confidence in the trustworthiness of the
Darwinian principles. This fact we are in no way inclined to doubt, but
we must again differ from Wagner with regard to its significance. We
maintain that matters had to take this turn, since the reason why
Darwinism is now meeting with such serious opposition, is to be found
in its very nature. This indeed should have been recognized forty years
ago instead of just beginning to dawn on men of science at the present
day. For if acquired characters are not transmitted by heredity,
Darwinism is an impossibility. Forty years ago Darwinism should have
recognized that its first and supreme task was to prove the hereditary
transmission of acquired characters, so as to establish itself, first
of all, on a sound footing.

One of the most peculiar incidents in this scientific tragi-comedy is
the fact that Weismann, the mainstay of contemporary decadent
Darwinism, attacks with might and main it