THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 183
develop into a flat fish at once and directly, not into an upright symmetrical
fish which afterwards changes into a flat fish. On the supposition that in some
way or other the history of the individual does affect the germ-cells in such a
way that they must repeat that history in the next generation, the facts of re-
capitulation and metamorphosis are intelligible. On the more strictly logical
hypothesis that the hereditary properties of the germ-cells are entirely indepen-
dent of the fate of the soma, we can make adaptation intelligible, but not the re-
capitulation of previous adaptations. Mr. Cunningham said that thus we had a
logical hypothesis which could not explain the facts, and, on the other hand,
an explanation of the facts which could not be deduced from any conceivable
hypothesis.
Prof. Meldola, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Cunningham, said that
the lecture to which they had just listened was, in his opinion, a most admirable
illustration of scientific method, beginning as it did with the detailed and accurate
record of observation, and leading up by wider and wider generalisations till they
had been finally brought face to face with some of the fundamental problems of
modern biology. One great feature which had struck him in listening to the
lecturer's remarks was that they were being addressed by an observer of nature
at first hand ; not a mere compiler from books. There was, unfortunately, much
book-learning being distributed as real knowledge at the present time. With
reference to the lecture itself, Prof. Meldola regretted that the lateness of the
hour precluded adequate discussion of some of the very interesting and important
points raised, especially towards the conclusion, when Mr. Cunningham had
referred to the fundamental question of the inheritance of "acquired characters,"
He was glad to think that he (Prof. Meldola) had been the means of first bringing
prominently under the notice of English naturalists the work of the eminent
German biologist who had been a strong champion of the view that such
characters were not transmitted—he referred to Prof. August Weismann, of
Freiburg, whose latest utterances were embodied in a work recently published
under the title of "The Germ-Plasm." Prof. Meldola thought that some of the
difficulties raised by Mr. Cunningham—not against evolution as a principle, for
the lecturer had unhesitatingly declared himself to be an evolutionist—but against
the special Darwinian form of the theory, were more apparent than real. He
thought, for instance, that the young flat fish had to pass through the ancestral
phase of having eyes on each side of the head, because, at that early stage of life
it was a distinct advantage for the young to lead the life of an ordinary fish, so as
to become dispersed over a wide area as soon as possible after leaving the egg.
For this purpose ordinary habits, entailing bilateral symmetry in the arrangement
of the eyes, would be advantageous, and would therefore be retained by natural
selection as an extension of an embryonic phase. When the adult settled down
to a more sedentary life on the sea bottom, the present arrangement of the two
eyes on the same side of the head would be more advantageous than the older
arrangement. He did not feel called upon to make a confession of faith with
respect to a theory which was still on its trial, and of which the confirmation or
refutation was confessedly a problem surrounded by enormous practical difficulties.
Prof. Meldola stated in conclusion that, as far as his own opinions went, he was
inclined to take an opposite view to that held by their able lecturer, and to con-
sider that the balance of evidence was turning in favour of Weismann's doctrine
that "acquired," as distinguished from congenital, characters were not trans-
mitted from parent to offspring.