ONTOGENETIC DEVELOPMENT OF DETERMINANTS. 35 



repeatedly (as is so common in the plant kingdom) it 

 depends especially on nutrition whether the corre- 

 sponding phenomenon is repeated at intervals of 

 greater or less length A weakened determinant is 

 sometimes temporarily developed by the operation 

 of a definite stimulus. 



If the integrity of the organism sustains an injury 

 inconsequence of abnormal interferences, determin- 

 ants develop exceptionally at unusual points. The 

 process is induced by accumulation of nutritive 

 matter and by external stimuli under the force of 

 necessity, to which the injured organism is sensible. 



14. ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE ORGANISM. 



The essential nature of a thing is the sum total 

 of its causes and effects. Organisms arise from a 

 germ cell which consists of idioplasm and in turn 

 they produce like germ cells. Their nature depends 

 also on their idioplasm, i.e. , on the sum total of their 

 idioplasmic determinants. Observation of organ- 

 isms, even in their fullest life history, gives us an 

 imperfect and even false conception of their true 

 nature. This is because observation reveals only 

 the outer gross characters, and even these in a 

 modification dependent upon accidental effects of 

 nutrition, and does not reveal the finer characters 

 founded in molecular physiology and morphology, 

 and especially the characters latent in the idioplasm. 



For the examination of idioplasmic differences 



