On Orthogenesis (Definite Evolution)
Or the Impotence of Darwinian Selection in the Formation of Species. By Th. Eimer, Professor of Zoology in the University of Tuebingen. Translated by Thomas J. McCormack. 19 cuts. Pp., 56. Paper 25c. (1s. 6d.).
This little brochure was written in reply to Weismann’s “Germinal Selection.” Prof. Eimer argues upon the same lines as the American Neo-Lamarckians, Cope, Hyatt, etc. His doctrine of orthogenesis, which he declares to be a universally valid law, has been framed to show that organisms develop in definite directions, without regard for utility, through purely physiological causes, through the transmission of acquired characters, through the combined agency of the constitution of the animal and the effects of outward influences.