Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 of 3 / Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and Utility

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DARWIN AND AFTER DARWIN. An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions. 1. The Darwinian Theory. 460 pages. 125 illustrations. Cloth, $2.00. 2. Post-Darwinian Questions. Edited by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan. 338 pages. Cloth, $1.50. Both volumes together, $3.00 net. AN EXAMINATION OF WEISMANNISM. 236 pages. Cloth, $1.00. THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. Edited by Charles Gore, M.A., Canon of Westminster. Second Edition. 184 pages. Cloth, gilt top, $1.25.
1. The Darwinian Theory. 460 pages. 125 illustrations. Cloth, $2.00. 2. Post-Darwinian Questions. Edited by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan. 338 pages. Cloth, $1.50. Both volumes together, $3.00 net.
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 324 Dearborn Street, Chicago.
CHAPTER 1 COPYRIGHTED BY The Open Court Publishing Co. Chicago, Ill., 1895
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

As its sub-title announces, the present volume is mainly devoted to a consideration of those Post-Darwinian Theories which involve fundamental questions of Heredity and Utility.
As regards Heredity, I have restricted the discussion almost exclusively to Professor Weismann's views, partly because he is at present by far the most important writer upon this subject, and partly because his views with regard to it raise with most distinctness the issue which lies at the base of all Post-Darwinian speculation touching this subject—the issue as to the inheritance or non-inheritance of acquired characters.
My examination of the Utility question may well seem to the general reader needlessly elaborate; for to such a reader it can scarcely fail to appear that the doctrine which I am assailing has been broken to fragments long before the criticism has drawn to a close. But from my previous experience of the hardness with which this fallacious doctrine dies, I do not deem it safe to allow even one fragment of it to remain, lest, hydra-like, it should re-develop into its former proportions. And I can scarcely think that naturalists who know the growing prevalence of the doctrine, and who may have followed the issues of previous discussions with regard to it, will accuse me of being more over-zealous in my attempt to make a full end thereof.