A forgotten relic among the attempts to explain evolution. Heavily referencing Darwin, but more often harking back to Lamarck, Butler believed that while natural selection explains why certain traits persist through generations it does not support random mutations as the source of variation. His own view was that variations were caused by design; and that this design is defined by a "memory" which may stretch generations.

Criticised by the scientific community of the time, and all but forgotten today, Butler himself admits that this is not a scientific treatise. There are, nevertheless, some interest excerpts which, although now proven incorrect, give some fascinating insights.

As a literary work, I found Life and Habit repetitive and verbose. As a book on science, the lack of sound logic or evidence leaves much to be desired. If you're interested in a summary of Butler's views, the final chapter provides a convenient synopsis. Unfortunately, I did not find this sufficiently enjoyable or informative to explore Butler's other works on evolution.

Selected quotes

Here Butler explains how sexual reproduction is favoured in order to correct unfavourable memories which may exist in one of the parents. Substitute memories with genes and you have the theory of preventing the effect of recessive genes in progeny through being overcome by dominant genes.

"We should expect to find a predominance of sexual over asexual generation, in the arrangements of nature for continuing her various species, inasmuch as two heads are better than one, and a locus pœnitentiæ is thus given to the embryo - an opportunity of correcting the experience of one parent by that of the other. And this is what the more intelligent embryos may be supposed to do; for there would seem little reason to doubt that there are clever embryos and stupid embryos, with better or worse memories, as the case may be, of how they dealt with their protoplasm before, and better or worse able to see how they can do better now; and that embryos differ as widely in intellectual and moral capacity, and in a general sense of the fitness of things, and of what will look well into the bargain, as those larger embryos - to wit, children - do."

Butler is adamant that infertile offspring are not caused by genetics but by conditions which may be out of tune with the offspring's memories. Of course, we know now how mistaken he was:-

"After which, however, the conclusion arrived at is, that, “after all, the cause more probably lies in some imperfection in the original act of impregnation, causing the embryo to be imperfectly developed rather than in the conditions to which it is subsequently exposed.” A conclusion which I am not prepared to accept."

The concept of memories being the source of variation is taken a bit too far in this instance. Butler has failed to grasp the fact that food is broken down into nutritional components before being consumed by an animal:

"Food, when sufficiently assimilated (the whole question turning upon what is “sufficiently”), becomes stored with all the experience and memories of the assimilating creature; corn becomes hen, and knows nothing but hen, when hen has eaten it."

Some of Butler's views would be considered racist today. In fact, it is likely more an ignorance of other customs or cultures, despite his own travels and wide sphere of learning:-

"But if we turn from what “might” or what “would” happen to what “does” happen, we find that a few white families have nearly driven the Indian from the United States, the Australian natives from Australia, and the Maories from New Zealand. True, these few families have been helped by immigration; but it will be admitted that this has only accelerated a result which would otherwise, none the less surely, have been effected." ( )