an important part in the origin of species though a very different part to that which is usually ascribed to them by the Lamarckians.
There is another possible way in which acquired characters might play an important part in organic evolution even though it should be finally proved that such characters are never transmissible by inheritance. This method has been conceived independently by Professor Lloyd Morgan, Professor Mark Baldwin and Professor H.F. Osborn, and had previously been suggested by Weismann himself (Romanes Lecture on "The Effects of External Influences on Development",1894). It has been called "organic selection" by Baldwin (AmericanCommon Naturalist, June and July 1896). The principle is well explained by Lloyd Morgan in his recent book on Animal Behaviour. (illegible text)"Indeed", he says, "that acquired modifications, as such, are not directlymost decidedly inherited, they may none the less affordaffect the conditions under which coincident variations escape elimination". By coincident variations he means "those, the direction of which coincides with that taken by the modification". "Survival would in the long run he better secured, we may suppose, when the two methods of adjustment are coincident and not conflicting". The acquired variations will keep the individuals and preserve them until some congenital variation shall arise which is coincident in direction and of a similar adaptive value. Thus though the
