The Animal Organism and its Germ-Layers Q5 



as a particularly clear case of the genuine transformation of 

 cndoderm cells into sex-cells. To be still more explicit, in 

 liis figure (115 plate V,) is shown a sex-cell so slightly differ- 

 ent from the neighboring cndoderm cells, and so related to 

 the surrounding cells, that no one would hesitate to conclude 

 that it had very recently arisen by division of one of the 

 cndoderm cells unless influenced by considerations other than 

 the evidence actually before his eyes. Exactly the same 

 conditions, he says, are observable in Clava, Sertularia, and 

 Sertularella; and he then remarks: "From these observ'^ations 

 it becomes unfair to assume that in other cases where germ 

 cells are found in the endoderm that they have wandered 

 from the ectoderm. Proof of tliis must be absolute." ^ The 

 full force of this remark is seen only when it is taken in 

 connection with Weismann's own statements about the sex- 

 cells of Corydendrium parasiticwm. He saw here no less 

 positively than did Goette, very young stages of the cells in 

 the endoderm ; but since, he says, he could not find the ab- 

 solutely first stages "the possibility of the ectodermal ori- 

 gin of the sex-cells is not excluded." ^ In other words, the 

 absence of absolute proof of the endodermal origin of the 

 cells is used to support the a priori conclusion that they 

 arise in the ectoderm ! So far as the observational evidence 

 in this specific case goes, it strongly supports, as Weismann 

 himself grants, the conclusion that the reproductive cells 

 arise in the endoderm, but since the evidence falls a little 

 short of finality it may be cast aside wholly in favor of 

 purely theoretical grounds for supposing the origin to be 

 elsewhere! Against this method of reasoning Goette 

 strongly protests, and every biologist who genuinely be- 

 lieves that speculative proof must yield to observational 

 proof when the two come into conflict, will say amen. And 

 when once one sees the extent to which Weismann's whole 

 system rests upon this method, and sees at the same time 

 how widely influential the system is, he will recognize that 



