HEREDITY 241 



soma and germ are the same cell. When we deal with animals 

 that reproduce by fission of the adult body, or with plants that 

 reproduce by buds, grafts, cuttings, etc. (that is, vegetatively and 

 without seeds), soma and germ are again the same thing. But 

 when we deal with the multicellular animal we make a distinction 

 between the " body " that is motile, sensory, perceptive, cognitive, 

 etc., and the germ (or gonidial cells) w^hich are reproductive. 

 And even then the distinction may fail because even the " body " 

 may be reproductive of a new" (functional or abortive) body. 

 What confuses us is the process of development w^hereby the 

 germ-cell of the multicellular organism (which is nevertheless 

 the organism) grows and differentiates and displays activities that 

 were only potential in it as a germ-cell. We say, then, that these 

 displayed activities have been " transmitted " from the parental 

 body, via a germ-cell to the progenal body, but we really mean 

 that those activities, patent to the parental body, become potential 

 in the germ-cell and then again patent in the body that develops 

 from that germ- cell. 



R 



