42 Heredity. 



ger or any other cause, the ontogenetic cell-material 

 which builds up the organism will set free soul-stuff. 



*^By the law of gaseous diffusion this will not only es- 

 cape from the body as an excretion, but it will also pene- 

 trate to the germinal or phylogeneticproto])lasm. This 

 process I shall now term soul-rece])tion (Seelenfiingerei) 

 in the following sense. The chemical substance which 

 forms the greater part of the ova and male cells has 

 lately been called nuclein, since it shows the closest re- 

 semblance to the cell nucleus. The yolk-substance is 

 now regarded, not as vitellin, but egg-nuclein, and the 

 substance of the male cell not spermatin but sperm-nu- 

 clein. We also know that nuclein consists of albumin, 

 and phosphoric lecithin. 



" The question tlien is the origin of the nuclein in 

 the Q^g^ and the male cell, and this may be answered as 

 follows: 



*'The reproductive organs do not receive albumen 

 from the body of the mother, since according to the law 

 of Traube, the molecules of a substance which forms 

 a membrane cannot, on account of their size, pass 

 through the pores of that mem.brane. The germ-cell is 

 an albuminous membrane, and hence it will not allow 

 the passage of albumin molecules. 



"It simply contains the albumin-nucleus, which re- 

 mains after the decomposition of the soul-substance, and 

 this is a peptone-like substance which, having lost its 

 soul-substance, has a smaller molecule. It is therefore 

 unspecialized, or deprived of its soul (entspcsificirt, ent- 

 seelt), and the process of assimilation in the germ may 

 be termed soul-restoration (Wiederbeseelnng). The 

 necessary soul-substance is supplied by the decomposi- 

 tion of albumen in the ontogenetic cell-material. 



*' Thus, for example (p. 380), it is known that the re- 



