Upon the inheritance of acquired characters : a hypothesis of heredity, development, and assimilation / Eugenio Rignano ; authorized English translation by Basil C.H. Harvey.

  • Eugenio Rignano
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Upon the inheritance of acquired characters : a hypothesis of heredity, development, and assimilation / Eugenio Rignano ; authorized English translation by Basil C.H. Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is able in its turn to include a number greater stili. So soon as a hypothesis pushes a bit nearer to thè beleaguered fortress, so to speak, and indicates new lines for study, observation and research, one must admit that it has ful- filled its purpose. And this applies to our view of thè new biogenetic hypothesis which we here submit to thè judg- ment of biologists and of positive philosophers in generai. We have believed it expedient to follow in thè exposi- tion of this theory thè order in which it was conceived and built up, and so thè first chapter describes briefly thè inductive way in which thè author, starting out from thè fundamental biogenetic law, was led to thè conception of his hypothesis. In thè three following chapters are col- lected and arranged as concisely as possible thè principal. different, biogenetic facts which, quite independently of thè ever controverted question of thè inheritance of acquired characters, serve best to set forth and define thè new hypothesis and which, since they find in it their most complete explanation, confimi it again directly or in- directly in a deductive way. After having then undertaken in thè fifth chapter a brief examination of thè question of thè inheritance or thè non-inheritance of acquired characters which until then we had laid entirely aside, we pass in thè sixth chapter to thè criticai exposition of thè principal biogene- tic theories which are current at present. And we do this not only with thè object of showing their inadequacy to explain thè mechanism of inheritance, but rather in order that thè perception of thè reason of this inadequacy may aid us in discovering thè necessary and sufficient con- ditions required in any theory which seeks to explain this inheritance. After that we go on again in thè seventh chapter with thè examination of our hypothesis whose
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