342 SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION, ETC. 



plicated as it is improbable. The whole idea of the passage 

 of gemmules from the modified parts of the body into the 

 germ-cells is based upon the unproved assumption that 

 acquired characters can be transmitted. The idea that the 

 male germ-cell plays a different part from that of the female, in 

 the construction of the emb^^ro, seems to me to be untenable, 

 especially because it conflicts with the simple observation that 

 upon the whole human children inherit quite as much from the 

 father as from the mother. 



