10 THE P. 10 LOGICAL PROBLEM OF TO-DAY 



to undergo a hereditary and independent change 

 from the germ onwards, unless a small vital element 

 corresponding to this particular part of the skin 

 existed in the germ substance, a variation in this 

 element causing a corresponding variation in the 

 part concerned. Were this not the case, birth- 

 marks would not exist.' 



Thus, in a slightly altered fashion, we come again 

 to the position of the evolutionists of last century, 

 for whom the germ was an extremely small 

 miniature of the adult creature. The new evolu- 

 tion, as Weismann in especial has established it, 

 seems to me to differ from the old doctrine only 

 in two important points ; and these must be placed 

 to the credit of the greater scientific knowledge of 

 our centuiy. The first point concerns the relative 

 positions of the parts in the patent and latent con- 

 ditions. The older evolutionists assumed that 

 these were identical, that the germ was a true 

 miniature. It is true that Weismann regards his 

 almost countless germinal particles as being held 

 together in an architectural structure of almost in- 

 conceivable complexity. For him the germ is an 

 exceedingly complicated living being, a microcosm 

 in the truest sense, in which every independently 

 variable part that ever appears throughout the 

 whole life is represented by a living particle, and 

 in which each of the living particles is endowed 

 with a definite, inherited position, a constitution, and 

 the power of rapid multiplication. It is upon the 

 qualities of these ultimate particles that he makes 

 depend the qualities of the corresponding parts of 



