It has already been shown, while setting forth in the preceding chapter the antecedent standing of the issue, that in this respect the _prima facie_ presumption is wholly on the side of the transmission, in greater degree or less, of acquired characters. Even Weismann allows that all "_appearances_" point in this direction, while there is no inductive evidence of the action of natural selection in any one case, either as regards germs or somas, and therefore, _a fortiori_, of the "all-sufficiency" of this cause[35]. It is true that in some of his earlier essays he has argued that there is no small weight of _prima facie_ evidence in favour of his own views as to the non-inheritance of acquired characters. This, however, will have to be considered in its proper place further on. Meanwhile I shall say merely in general terms that it arises almost entirely from a confusion of the doctrine of Continuity as absolute with that of Continuity as partial, and therefore, as admitting of degrees in different cases--which, as already explained, are doctrines wide as the poles asunder. But, leaving aside for the present such _prima facie_ evidence as Weismann has adduced on his side of the issue, I may quote him as a hostile witness to the weight of this kind of evidence _per contra_, in so far as it has already been presented in the foregoing chapter. Indeed, Weismann is much too logical a thinker not to perceive the cogency of the "appearances" which lie against his view of Continuity as absolute--although he has not been sufficiently careful in distinguishing between such Continuity and that which admits of degrees. [35] See, especially, his excellent remarks on this point, _Contemp. Rev._ Sept. 1893. We may take it, then, as agreed on all hands that whatever weight merely _prima facie_ evidence may in this matter be entitled to, is on the side of what I have termed moderated Lamarckianism: first sight "appearances" are against the Neo-Darwinian doctrine of the absolute non-inheritance of acquired characters. * * * * * Let us now turn to another and much more important line of indirect evidence in favour of moderated Lamarckianism.