=Why So Many Features of an Organism Are Characterized by Utility.--=Germinal variations are seemingly at first more or less hit or miss affairs as far as utility to the organism is concerned. Useless variations, so long as they are not actually harmful, may persist and apparently be indefinitely inherited. However, a special premium is put on variations which happen to be useful for they help the organism to succeed in its struggle for life and since success in the world of life means not only mere individual survival but also the production of progeny, through this very means insured transmission to subsequent generations. It is probable that the very many useful features of any organism, that is, its _adaptations_, have thus been established. It is possible also that many variations which at their inception are indifferent may wax in strength in successive generations until they reach a point where they must become either useful or harmful. In the former case they would mean increased insurance of survival for their possessors, in the latter, elimination. With such an automatic process as this operative in nature it is not astonishing that the main features of any organism are characterized by their utility to it. =Germinal Variation a Simpler and More Inclusive Explanation.--=The gist of the whole matter regarding the source of new characters in offspring seems to be that the explanation based on the idea of germinal variation is in last analysis the simpler and more inclusive, and there is no alleged case of inheritance of parental modification, which can not be equally well explained as the result of a germinal variation. There are numerous cases which can not be explained as transmissions of somatic acquirements even if this transmission could be established in certain cases. So, many biologists argue, why have two explanations when one is sufficient, especially when the other has never been conclusively established as true in any case and is obviously untrue in certain test cases? The attitude of most investigators is that of the open mind. While feeling that the weight of probability is very decidedly against the theory of the inheritance of somatic modifications, they still stand ready and willing to accept any evidence in its favor which when weighed in the balance is not found wanting. ANALYSIS OF CASES While space will not permit extended discussion, in order further to fix the nature of the problem in mind as well as to exemplify the conditions that must be satisfied to form convincing evidence of inherited somatic acquirements, it will be well perhaps to analyze a few typical cases as they are frequently cited.