LAWS OF INHERITANCE. 205 



former by conservative inheritance. We have now first to 

 examine the phenomena of conservative inheritance, that is, 

 the transmission of such quahties as the organism has 

 already received from its parents or ancestors. (Gen. Morph. 

 ii. 180.) 



Among the phenomena of conservative inheritance we are 

 first struck by that which is its most general law, and which 

 we may term the law of uninterrupted or continuous 

 transmission. It is so universal among the higher animals 

 and plants, that the uninitiated might overestimate its action 

 and consider it as the only normal law of transmission by 

 inheritance. This law simply consists in the fact that 

 among most species of animals and plants, every generation 

 is, on the whole, like the preceding — that the parents are as 

 like the grandparents as they are like the children. " Like 

 produces like," as is commonly said, but more accurately 

 " similar things produce similar things." For, in reality, the 

 descendants of every organism are never absolutely equal 

 in all points, but only similar in a greater or less degree. 

 This law is so generally known, that I need not give any 

 examples of it. 



The law of interrupted or latent transmission by inherit- 

 ance, which might also be termed alternating transmission, 

 is in a measure opposed to the preceding law. This im- 

 portant law appears principally active among many lower 

 animals and plants, and manifests itself in contrast to the 

 former in the fact that the offspring are not like their 

 parents, but very dissimilar, and that only the third or a 

 later generation becomes similar to the first. The grand- 

 children are like the grandparents, but quite unlike the 

 parents. This is a remarkable phenomenon, and, as is well 



