Embryology and Use-Inheritance

Abstract

As I read over the homily which my friend Prof. MacBride has addressed to readers of NATURE in general and to myself in particular—one with which we are all becoming familiar—I was reminded of an experience suffered by Huxley when he lectured at the Royal Institution on the cerebellum. At the end of the lecture, a devout hearer approached to inform him that she had understood and enjoyed the lecture—with the exception of one point—was the cerebellum inside or outside the skull? After I have filled 24 columns of your valuable space to prove that Huxley was altogether right when he denied that use-inheritance played any part in the evolution of man—or of any other animal—Prof. MacBride, after reading these columns, turns round and practically asks me if I have heard of Kammerer!