vigour of the offspring would be impaired. This again would not be a case of the inheritance of acquired character. Dr. Hamilton arrives at the conclusion that “the various hereditaryy tendencies or predispositions to disease of the hereditaryy type haves arisen as variations in the germ-plasm". He thinks that the gouty habit of the body arose in this way, and that the predisposition to tuberculosis which is often seen is due to a vulnerability of the protective epethalia, and that this also has arisen as a variation in the germ-plasm. He explains the origin of mental diseases in a similar way. He adds that "there is no evidence proving that diseased conditions of body, excited by external agencies, using the term in its broadest sense, can be transmitted hereditarilyively through generations". That is to say he agrees with Weismann and his followers. But it is evident from the discussion which followed that medical men are by no means unanimous on this question. The majority cling to their belief in the Lamarckian factors.
The only safe conclusion to which we can come is that the question as to inheritance of acquired characters has still to be answered.
Evolution depends on Variation and Heredity. The problems of Variation and Heredity are now being attacked from many sides by biologists. It is on their solution that all advance in future must depend. To propound hypothetical speculations and to marshall arguments for and against certain views no
