CHAPTER II.. The Standpoint of Biologists.

THE STANDPOINT OF BIOLOGISTS.

Lamarck’s View on Heredity--Darwin’s Law of Selection--Three Ideas involved in Selection--Selection is a Fact, not a Theory--How much is explainable by Selection?--Galton and Weismann--Are Acquired Characters Transmitted?--Many Cases of Supposed Transmission to be explained by Selection--Paucity of Experimental Evidence of such Transmission--The Reproductive and the Body Cells--Reproductive Cells unaffected by Local Changes in the Body Cells--Constitutional Change may, though it rarely does, affect the Reproductive Cell--The Facts of Evolutive Selection known to the Gardener and Breeder 19–43