THE VINDICATION OF SAMUEL BUTLER .
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In his second article under the above-named heading published in your issue of the 27th ultimo, Mr. Joad cites some experiments on toads and salamanders by " a certain Dr. Kammerer of Vienna," the result of which, it is asserted, disproves Weismann's theory that characters acquired by parents are not transmitted to offspring.
In a letter published in the New Leader of December 20th last, Mr. Michael Pease, assistant to the Balfour Professor of Genetics in the University of Cambridge, charges Mr. Joad with misleading his readers in omitting to point out that Kammerer's claim is, to put it mildly, doubted by most
biologists to-day." Mr. Pease adds that when Kammerer visited this country in 1924, " he failed to recruit any further. support except -that of the more sensational daily Press."
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