Essays upon heredity and kindred biological problems / by August Weismann ; authorized translation edited by Edward B. Poulton, Selmar Schönland and Arthur E. Shipley.

  • Weismann, August, 1834-1914.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays upon heredity and kindred biological problems / by August Weismann ; authorized translation edited by Edward B. Poulton, Selmar Schönland and Arthur E. Shipley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    prove a transmission of acquired characters have been refuted, and that the only firm foundation on which this hypothesis has been hitherto based has been destroyed. We shall not be obliged, in future, to trouble about every single so-called proof of the trans- mission of mutilations, and investigation may be concentrated upon the domain in which lies the true decision as to the Lamarekian principle, it may be concerned with the explanation of the ob- served phenomena of transformation. If, as I believe, these phenomena can be explained without the Lamarekian principle, we have no right to assume a form of transmission of which we cannot prove the existence. Only if it could be shown that we cannot now or ever dispense with the principle, should we be justified in accepting it. I do not think that I can represent the state of the subject better than by again referring to the metaphor of the ship. We see it moving along with all sails set, we can discern the presence of neither paddles nor screw, and as far as we can judge there is no funnel, nor any other sign of an engine. In such a case we shall not be justified in concluding that an engine is present and has some share in the movement of the vessel, unless the movement is of such a kind that it is impossible to explain it as due to the unaided action of the wind, the current, and the rudder. Only if the phenomena pre- sented by the progress of organic evolution are proved to be inex- plicable without the hypothesis of the transmission of acquired characters, shall we be justified in retaining such an hypothesis.