INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 95 



exhibited before, and not be simply the reawakening 

 of a latent germinal character; and third, the same 

 particular character must reappear in succeeding 

 generations in the absence of the original external 

 cause which brought the character in question forth. 

 As yet these conditions have not been convincingly 

 met in the evidence which has been brought forward 

 in support of the inheritance of acquired characters. 



14. THE OPPOSITION TO WEISMANN 



The opponents of Weismann point out, as a weak 

 place in his argument, the assumption that the germ- 

 plasm is so insulated from the somatoplasm as not to 

 be influenced by it. Weismann assumes, of course, 

 that the germplasm is isolated from the somatoplasm 

 very early in the development of the fertilized egg 

 into an individual, and that when once isolated it there- 

 after takes no active part in, nor is in any way affected 

 by, the vicissitudes through which the somatoplasm, 

 or the body itself, passes. The somatoplasm is thus 

 merely a carrier of the germplasm and unable to 

 affect the character of it any more than a rubber hot- 

 water bag, although capable of assuming a variety 

 of shapes, can affect the character of the water within 

 it. 



In opposition to this view it is urged that every 

 organism is a physiological as well as a morphological 

 unity, and that cells entirely insulated within such a 

 unity would be a physiological miracle. 



There is abundant evidence that germ-cells, or 

 rather the sexual organs producing the germ-cells, do 



