Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited?: An Examination of the View Held by Spencer and Darwin — John Shaqi
Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited?: An Examination of the View Held by Spencer and DarwinBall, W. P. (William Platt)
Philosophy
Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited?: An Examination of the View Held by Spencer and Darwin
Ball, W. P. (William Platt)
Heredity; Variation (Biology)
Mr. Wallace, in his _Darwinism_, answers Mr. Spencer by a collection of
facts showing that "variation is the rule," that the range of variation
in wild animals and plants is much greater than was supposed, and that
"each part varies to a considerable extent independently" of other
parts, so that "the materials constantly ready for natural selection to
act upon are abundant in quantity and very varied in kind." While
co-operative parts would often be more or less correlated, so that they
would tend to vary together, coincident variation is not necessary. The
lengthened wing might be gained in one generation, and the strengthened
muscle at a subsequent period; the bird in the meanwhile drawing upon
its surplus energy, aided (as I would suggest) by the strengthening
effect of increased use in the individual. Seeing that artificial
selection of complicated variations has modified animals in many points
either simultaneously or by slow steps, as with otter-sheep, fancy
pigeons, &c. (many of the characters thus obtained being clearly
independent of use and disuse), natural selection must be credited with
similar powers, and Mr. Wallace concludes that Mr. Spencer's
insuperable difficulty is "wholly imaginary."
The extract concerning a somewhat similar "class of difficulties," which
Mr. Spencer quotes from his _Principles of Biology_, is faulty in its
reasoning,[9] though legitimate in its conclusion concerning the
increasing difficulty of evolution in proportion with the increasing
number and complexity of faculties to be evolved. But this increasing
difficulty of complex evolution is only overcome by _some_
favourably-varying individuals and species--not by all. And as the
difficulty increases we find neglect and decay of the less-needed
faculties--as with domesticated animals and civilized men, who lose in
one direction while they gain in another. The increasing difficulty of
complex evolution by natural selection is no proof whatever of
use-inheritance[10] except to those who confound difficulty with
impossibility.
ALLEGED RUINOUS EFFECTS OF NATURAL SELECTION.
Mr. Spencer further contends that natural selection, by unduly
developing specially advantageous modifications without the necessary
but complex secondary modifications, would render the constitution of a
variety "unworkable" (p. 23). But this seems hardly feasible, seeing
that natural selection must continually favour the most workable
constitutions, and will only preserve organisms in proportion as they
combine general workableness with the special modification. On the other
hand, according to Mr. Spencer himself, use-inheritance must often
disturb the balance of the constitution. Thus it tends to make the jaws
and teeth unworkable through the overcrowding and decay of the
teeth--there being, as his illustrations show, no simultaneous or
concomitant or proportional variation in relation to altered degree of
use or disuse.
ADVERSE CASE OF NEUTER INSECTS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account