436 
way to a given stimulus ; and secondly, the development 
of this predisposition, which may or may not take place, 
according to circumstance. But— 
“ Only one of the causes which produce any acquired character 
can be transmitted—the one which was present before the character 
itself appeared, viz., the predisposition. . . . It is quite immaterial 
to the following generation whether such predisposition comes into 
operation or not.”—(Essays upon Heredity, vol. z., ist ed., p. ijii) 
“It also follows that those other characters which have been 
acquired by the influence of special external conditions during the 
lifetime of the parent cannot be transmitted at all.”—{Ibid. p. 267.) 
No increment due to the realisation of the predisposition 
can be inherited ; consequently each generation has an 
identical starting-point:— 
“ The hypothesis of the continuity of the germ plasm gives an 
identical starting point to each successive generation, and thus 
explains how it is that an identical product arises from all of them.” 
—{Ibid. p. 168.) 
Now, with respect to this theory, we may remark that, 
if it were true, it would afford a most interesting explana 
tion of the strictest fixity of species. We could then 
understand why there should be no modification of struc 
ture or increase of capacity in the race ; since whatever 
might be acquired by one generation would be lost in 
the act of transmission to the next. But this theory is 
used by the advocate of organic evolution, and it is incum 
bent upon him to explain the facts of nature in accordance 
with his theory. There is a transmutation of species, there 
is an increased facility of operation, as in the case of 
instincts which have been developed in the race; and yet 
it is asserted that the offspring inherit the same predis 
position from age to age. This theory of “ predisposition ” 
is no less fatal to the logical demands of the theory of 
Natural Selection. If each successive generation has an