Ross had prospered in his work.It may be that the element of dissatisfaction in his married life spurred him on, while the unusual opportunities of his ranch allowed free effort.He had always held that the "non-transmissability of acquired traits" was not established by any number of curtailed mice or crop-eared rats."A mutilation is not an acquired trait," he protested."An acquired trait is one gained by exercise; it modifies the whole organism.It must have an effect on the race.We expect the sons of a line of soldiers to inherit their fathers' courage--perhaps his habit of obedience--but not his wooden leg."To establish his views he selected from a fine family of guinea-pigs two pair; set the one, Pair A, in conditions of ordinary guinea-pig bliss, and subjected the other, Pair B, to a course of discipline.They were trained to run.They, and their descendants after them, pair following on pair; first with slow-turning wheels as in squirrel cages, the wheel inexorably going, machine-driven, and the luckless little gluttons having to move on, for gradually increasing periods of time, at gradually increasing speeds.Pair A and their progeny were sheltered and fed, but the rod was spared; Pair B were as the guests at "Muldoon's"--they had to exercise.With scientific patience and ingenuity, he devised mechanical surroundings which made them jump increasing spaces, which made them run always a little faster and a little farther; and he kept a record as carefully as if these little sheds were racing stables for a king.
Several centuries of guinea-pig time went by; generation after generation of healthy guinea-pigs passed under his modifying hands; and after some five years he had in one small yard a fine group of the descendants of his gall-fed pair, and in another the offspring of the trained ones; nimble, swift, as different from the first as the razor-backed pig of the forest from the fatted porkers in the sty.He set them to race--the young untrained specimens of these distant cousins--and the hare ran away from the tortoise completely.
Great zoologists and biologists came to see him, studied, fingered, poked, and examined the records; argued and disbelieved--and saw them run.
"It is natural selection," they said."It profited them to run.""Not at all," said he."They were fed and cared for alike, with no gain from running.""It was artificial selection," they said."You picked out the speediest for your training.""Not at all," said he."I took always any healthy pair from the trained parents and from the untrained ones--quite late in life, you understand, as guinea-pigs go."Anyhow, there were the pigs; and he took little specialized piglets scarce weaned, and pitted them against piglets of the untrained lot--and they outran them in a race for "Mama." Wherefore Mr.Ross Warden found himself famous of a sudden; and all over the scientific world the Wiesmanian controversy raged anew.He was invited to deliver a lecture before some most learned societies abroad, and in several important centers at home, and went, rejoicing.
Diantha was glad for him from the bottom of her heart, and proud of him through and through.She thoroughly appreciated his sturdy opposition to such a weight of authority; his long patience, his careful, steady work.She was left in full swing with her big business, busy and successful, honored and liked by all the town--practically--and quite independent of the small fraction which still disapproved.Some people always will.She was happy, too, in her babies--very happy.
The Hotel del las Casas was a triumph.
Diantha owned it now, and Mrs.Weatherstone built others, in other places, at a large profit.
