creature the
organism is to the surrounding world, the conditions of nutrition and
other such influences. There is in this connection a particularly
instructive chapter on the physiological and other variations brought
about by external influences which act as "stimuli of the nervous system."
The whole theory of Lamarck and St. Hilaire transcends--notwithstanding the
protests of Eimer to the contrary--the categories of the mechanical theory
of life, and this chapter does so in particular. The array of facts here
marshalled as to the spontaneous self-adaptation of organisms to their
environment--in relation to colour mainly--forms the most thoroughgoing
refutation of Darwinism that it is possible to imagine. It is shown, too,
by a wealth of examples from osteology, how use (and the necessities of
the case--a consideration which again goes beyond the bounds of mere
Lamarckism) may modify, increase or diminish vertebrae, ribs, skull and
limbs, in short, the whole skeleton.

Kassowitz is equally keen and convinced in his opposition to natural
selection, and in his comprehensive "Allgemeine Biologic"(44) he attacks
orthodox Darwinism from the neo-Lamarckian standpoint. The whole of the
first volume is almost chapter for chapter a critical analysis, and the
polemical element rather outweighs his positive personal contribution. He
criticises very severely all attempts to carry the Darwinian principle of
explaining adaptations into internal and minute details, arguing against
Roux's "Struggle of Parts" and Weismann's "Germinal Selection." And though
he himself maintains very decidedly that the ultimate aim of biology is to
find a mechanical solution of the problem of life, he criticises the
modern hypotheses in this direction without prejudice, and declares them
unsuccessful and insufficient, inclining himself towards the
"neo-vitalistic reaction" in its most recent expression. Along with Eimer
and Kassowitz, we may name W. Haacke, especially in relation to his views
on the acquisition and transmission of functional modifications and his
thoroughgoing denial of Darwinism proper. But his work must be dealt with
later in a different connection.(45)

These neo-Lamarckian views give us a picture of the evolution of the world
that is much more convincing than the strictly Darwinian one. Instead of
passive and essentially unintelligent "adaptation" through the sieve of
selection, we have here direct self-adaptation of organisms to t