Page 348 - The Social Weapon: Darwinism

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that these traits, which accumulated from one generation to an-

other, caused new species to be formed. For instance, he claimed
that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they struggled to eat the
leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from generation
to generation.
Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The Origin
of Species, for instance, he said that some bears going into water
to find food transformed themselves into whales over time. 200
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor
Mendel (1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics, which

flourished in the twentieth century, utterly demolished the leg-

Lamarck believed that giraffes evolved from such animals as an-
telopes. In his view, the necks of these grass-eating animals grad-
ually grew longer, and they eventually turned into giraffes. The
laws of inheritance discovered by Mendel in 1865 proved that it
was impossible for properties ac-
quired during life to be handed on
to subsequent generations.
Lamarck's giraffe fairy tale was
thus consigned to the wastebin
of history.

The Social Weapon: Darwinism