The Play of Animals

Editor's Appendix on Organic Selection[1]

James Mark Baldwin

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IN certain recent publications[2] an hypothesis has been presented which seems in some degree to mediate between the two current theories of heredity. The point of view taken in these publications is briefly this: Assuming the operation of natural selection as currently held, and assuming also that individual organisms through adaptation acquire modifications or new characters, then the latter will exercise a directive influence on the former quite independently of any direct inheritance of acquired characters. For organisms which survive through

(330) adaptive modification will hand on to the next generation any " coincident variations " (i. e., congenital variations in the same direction as adaptive modifications) which they may chance to have, and also allow further variations in the same direction. In any given series of generations, the individuals of which survive through their susceptibility to modification, there will be a gradual and cumulative development of coincident variations under the action of natural selection. The adaptive modification acts, in short, as a screen to perpetuate and develop congenital variations and correlated groups of these. Time is thus given to the species to develop by coincident variation characters indistinguishable from those which were due to acquired modification, and the evolution of the race will proceed in the lines marked out by private and individual adaptations. It will appear as if the modifications were directly inherited, whereas in reality they have acted as the fostering nurses of congenital variations.

It follows also that the likelihood of the occurrence of coincident variations will be greatly increased with each generation, under this " screening " influence of modification; for the mean of the congenital variations will be shifted in the direction of the adaptive modification, seeing that under the operation of natural selection upon each preceding generation variations which are not coincident tend to be eliminated.[3]

Furthermore, it has recently been shown that, independently of physicial (sic) heredity, there is among the animals a process by which there is secured a continuity of social environment, so that those organisms which are

(331) born into a social community, such as the animal family, accommodate themselves to the ways and habits of that community. Prof. Lloyd Morgan,[4] following Weismann and Hudson, has employed the term "tradition" for the handing on of that which has been acquired by preceding generations; and I have used the phrase "social heredity " for the accommodation of the individuals of each generation to the social environment, whereby the continuity of tradition is secured.[5]

It appears desirable that some definite scheme of terminology should be suggested to facilitate the discussion of these problems of organic and mental evolution; and I therefore venture to submit the following:

1. Variation: to be restricted to " blastogenic " or congenital variation.

2. Accommodation: functional adaptation of the individual organism to its environment. This term is widely used in this sense by psychologists, and in an analogous sense by physiologists.[6]

3. Modification (Lloyd Morgan) : change of structure or function due to accommodation. To supercede " ontogenic variations " (Osborn) -i. e., changes arising from all causes during ontogeny.

4. Coincident Variations (Lloyd Morgan) : variations which coincide with or are similar in direction to modifications.

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5. Organic Selection (Baldwin) : the perpetuation and development of (congenital) coincident variations in consequence of accommodation.

6. Orthoplasy (Baldwin) : the directive or determining influence of organic selection in evolution.[7]

7. Orthoplastic Influences (Baldwin) : all agencies of accommodation (e. g., organic plasticity, imitation, intelligence, etc.), considered as directing the course of evolution through organic selection.

8. Tradition (Lloyd Morgan) : the handing on from generation to generation (independently of physical heredity) of acquired habits.

9. Social Heredity (Baldwin) : the process by which the individuals of each generation acquire the matter of tradition and grow into the habits and usages of their kind.[8]

J. MARK BALDWIN.

Notes

  1. See pp. 64, 65, above. This appendix reproduces a communication made to Science (April 23, 1897) and Nature (April 15, 1897), slightly revised.
  2. H. F. Osborn, Proceedings of the New York Academy of Science, meeting of March 9 and April 13, 1896, reported in Science, April 3 and November 27,1896; also American Naturalist, November, 1897. C. Lloyd Morgan, Habit and Instinct, October, 1896, pp. 307 ff., also printed in Science. November 20, 1896. J. Mark Baldwin, discussion before the Now York Academy of Science, meeting of January 31st, reported in full in Science, March 20, 1896, also American Naturalist, June and July, 1896; also see other references given above, p. 64. The following brief statement was prepared in consultation with Principal Morgan and Professor Osborn.
  3. This aspect of the subject has been especially emphasized in my own exposition, American Naturalist, June, 1896, pp. 147 ff.
  4. Introduction to Comparative Psychology, pp. 170, 210; Habit and Instinct, pp. 183, 342.
  5. Mental Development in the Child and the Race, first edition, January, 1895, p. 364; Science, August 23, 1895; more fully treated in Social and Ethical Interpretations, 1897, chap. ii.
  6. It may be thought that "individual adaptation" suffices for this; but that phrase does not mark well the distinction between " accommodation " and " modification." Adaptation is used currently in a loose general sense.
  7. Eimer's "orthogenesis" might be adopted were it possible to free it from association with his hypotheses of " orthogenic " or ' determinate " variation, and use-inheritance. The view which I wish to characterize is in some degree a substitute for these hypotheses.
  8. For further justification of the terms "Social Heredity" and "Organic Selection," I may refer to the American Naturalist, July, 1896, pp. 552 ff.

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