228 WE AT IS LIFE 



Concerning the idea that the egg is the future 

 embryo, Loeb says further: "The fact that the egg 

 of so high a form as the frog can be made to develop 

 into a perfect and normal animal without a spermato- 

 zoon — although normally the egg of this form does 

 not develop unless a spermatozoon enters — corrobor- 

 ates the idea .... that the egg is the future embryo 

 and animal; and that the spermatozoon, aside from 

 its activating effect, only transmits Mendelian char- 

 acters to the egg."''^ 



The conclusion of biology, then, is that the egg is 

 the future embryo. The egg is absolutely specific- 

 The egg is the future embryo of an individual of the 

 particular species to which its mother organism 

 belongs. The species is represented by the egg, and 

 reproduced by it. 



The question of heredity is closely bound up with 

 the fact that the egg is the future embryo. 



(As Bateson points out, recognition of the sig- 

 nificance of heredity is modern. That the idea of 

 heredity in terms of blood — an idea sometimes sug- 

 gested in common speech — has no foundation in fact, 

 is obvious, since every organic individual starts his 

 existence as a microscopic cell.) 



A fertilized ovum that develops and grows to 

 maturity of the embryo and of the adult form, always 



** The Organism as a Wliole, 126. 



