72 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



of the new science of physiology of form, a period devoted 

 almost exclusively to the problem whether the theory of 

 nuclear division or, in a wider sense, whether the theory of 

 a strict " evolutio " as the basis of organogenesis was true 

 or not. 



It was shown, as we have seen, that the theory of the 

 " qualitatively unequal nuclear division ' (" qualitativ-un- 

 gleiche Kernteilung " in German) certainly was not true, 

 and that there also was no strict " evolutio ' :i in protoplasm. 

 Hence Weismann's theory was clearly disproved. There 

 certainly is a good deal of real " epigenesis ' in ontogeny, 

 a good deal of " production of manifoldness," not only with 

 regard to visibility but in a more profound meaning. But 

 some sort of pre-formatioii had also been proved to exist, 

 and this pre-formation, or, if you like, this restricted 

 evolution, was found to be of two different kinds. First 

 an intimate organisation of the protoplasm, spoken of as 

 its polarity and bilaterality, was discovered, and this had 

 to be postulated for every kind of germs, even when it 

 was overshadowed by immediate obligatory regulation after 

 disturbances. Besides that there were cases in which a 

 real specificity of special parts of the germ existed, a relation 

 of these special parts to special organs : but this sort of 

 specification also was shown to belong to the protoplasm. 



It follows from all we have mentioned about the 

 organisation of protoplasm and its bearing on morphogenesis, 

 that the eggs of different animals may behave rather 

 differently in this respect, and that the eggs indeed may 

 be classified according to the degree of their organisation. 

 Though we must leave a detailed discussion of these topics 

 to morphology proper, we yet shall try shortly to summarise 



