80 The Unity of the Organism 



the production of hereditary substance or in the transform- 

 ation of such substance into actual hereditary structures 

 and activities, we find ourselves hedged about on every side 

 by partial knowledge, by dubious knowledge, and by com- 

 plete ignorance on many fundamental points. 



However, chemical considerations seem to point the way 

 to future discovery. In the first place, it seems necessary 

 to recognize that the whole germ-plasm conception as orig- 

 inally promulgated, with its interminable system of "bear- 

 ers" and consummators, was contrary to what is well known 

 about chemical processes generally. Thus the continuity 

 presented by a complex chemical operation does not consist 

 in an unchanged series of individual entities of some sort, 

 such as determinants and determiners are, or originally 

 were conceived to be, but rather in a regular succession of 

 transformations. For example, when chromic hydroxide, 

 which is grayish-green, is dissolved in acid, a green solu- 

 tion results, which turns to greenish violet or pure violet 

 if allowed to stand a long time. Exactly what the chemical 

 changes are that correspond to these color changes I do 

 not know, and probably the information which chemists have 

 on the subject is not exhaustive. At any rate modern 

 chemistry conceives the phenomenon to consist in a succes- 

 sion of reactions and transformations, the various colors 

 and shades being attributes of the compounds that exist 

 in the various stages along the way, and not as due to in- 

 dividual bodies carried by the preceding stages for the 

 express and exclusive purpose of producing the particular 

 colors that are observed, as would be implied in such a 

 metaphysical scheme as was the germ-plasm theory elab- 

 orated by Weismann. 



Enzymic chemical action presents perhaps a still better 

 starting point for imagining what the fundamental hered- 

 itary processes may be than does ordinary chemical activity 

 like that just instanced. The essence of this kind of activ- 



