XXXIV 



AUGUST WEISMANN 



1834-1914 



August Weismann was born at Frankfort-on-Maln, January 17, 

 i8j4, and studied medicine at Gottingen, 18^2-18^6. He was physi- 

 cian to the Austrian Archduke for tivo years (1860-62), but was 

 compelled to retire because of his poor eyesight. He was called to 

 the chair of zoology at Freiburg University. After a close study of 

 Darwin's theory, he published in 18/6 his "Studies in the Theories of 

 Descent," a book ivhich at once attracted much attention among sci- 

 entists, for it proposed the theory of the germ-plasm as the basis of 

 heredity, and denied the theory of the transmissibility of acquired 

 characteristics. He died at F reiburg-in-Baden, November 6, 1914. 



THE CONTINUITY OF THE GERM-PLASM AS THE FOUN- 

 DATION OF A THEORY OF HEREDITY * 



INTRODUCTION 



When we see that, in the higher organisms, the smallest structural 

 details, and the most minute peculiarities of bodily and mental disposi- 

 tion, are transmitted from one generation to another ; when we find in 

 all species of plants and animals a thousand characteristic peculiarities 

 of structure continued unchanged through long series of generations ; 

 when we even see them in many cases unchanged throughout whole 

 geological periods ; we very naturally ask for the causes of such a strik- 

 ing phenomenon : and inquire how it is that such facts become possi- 

 ble, how it is that the individual is able to transmit its structural fea- 



* From Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems, Vol. I 

 (1889). 



334 



