458 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1892» 



of which it is believed that new characters will arise in the course 

 of germ-development, the favorable or useful variants of which in 

 the completely developed organisms, Avill be preserved by natural 

 selection. The further assumption is also made that no character 

 acquired by the soma, or body of the parent, through use, disuse or 

 mutilation of its parts, can be transmitted to its offspring. The 

 antagonism of Weismann and Lamarck are thus seen to be most 

 perfect. 



Weismann, however, has latterly been obliged to admit that it 

 was " absurd to say that an immortal substance can be converted 

 into a mortal substance," as pointed out by Prof. Vines. He has 

 also been compelled, as a consequence, to retreat from his position 

 declaring the immortal molecular stability of germ-plasm. H& 

 says : " An immortal, unalterable living substance does not exist, but 

 only immortal forms of activity as organized matter^ Upon which 

 Prof. Miles comments as follows: — "The material continuity of 

 the germ plasma is therefore discarded and replaced with the con- 

 ception of a mode of motion, manifest in matter that is continually 

 undergoing metabolic changes." 



Weismann is therefore logically driven to entirely abandon his 

 original position. Dr. Miles' answer to Weismann's position 

 regarding mutilations is the only sound argument I have met with 

 in this connection. It is: — "The failure of the effects of injuries 

 or mutilations to mak^ their appearance in the offspring, cannot be 

 admitted as evidence to prove the non-inheritance of acquired char- 

 acters, as the physiological activities of the system [organization of 

 the species] that are required to produce the morphological peculiar- 

 ities have not been established, and there can be no tendency of the 

 organism to reproduce them." 



It is now proposed to show that Weismann's hypothesis is ulti- 

 mately forced to assume, or take for granted, the modernized 

 Lamarckian theory of the causes of variation, without acknowledg- 

 ing the appropriation. This is especially true, since he admits the 

 existence of "immortal forms of the activity of organized matter," 

 while rejecting the immortal substance. 



Since no mass of matter, living or dead, can change its own con- 

 figuration, except through the motion of some of its own parts,. 

 however small, among themselves, it follows that such a change of 

 configuration signifies the expenditure of energy. 



