ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. 32 I 



pangenesis theory of Darwin was an attempt in this direction, 

 but that theory has no scientific basis and it stands as a theo- 

 retical failure, rejected because it could not possibly be recon- 

 ciled with what we know about the genesis of germs. That 

 is the inevitable fate of every view which fails to adjust itself 

 to the primary law of germ continuity. 



Sense impressions and physical impressions or modifications 

 stand on the same footing. Repetition may become habit and 

 produce marked effects on the nervous mechanism or other 

 organs ; but the individual structure so affected is not con- 

 tinued from generation to generation, so that the effects are 

 cancelled with each term of life, and there is no conceivable 

 way by which they could be stamped upon the germs and so 

 carried on cumulatively. If they reappear in the offspring, it 

 cannot be because they were inherited, but because they are 

 reproduced in the same way as they were acquired in the 

 parent. 



f . Preformation the Essence of the Doctrine. 



This doctrine of the transmission of acquired characters is a 

 species of preformation that eclipses the old creation hypothesis, 

 for the 7niracle of stamping the germ with the form it is to 

 present in the adult has to be repeated at each generation. 



It may be objected that " stamping " is not the method by 

 which parental characters are given to the germ. They are 

 commonly said to be inherited. But it is too late to juggle with 

 the term "heredity." That term either means something or 

 nothing. If it means that characters acquired by the parent 

 can be transmitted to the offspring, then the transmitted 

 characters,' which ex hypothesi are not originally determined in 

 the germ, must in some way be determined for it by the parent. 

 What better term than "stamp" or " impress" can be suggested.? 

 Whatever the modus operandi, the determining influence or 

 impress must be imparted, at least in the great majority of 

 cases, before development begins. Is it conceivable that per- 

 fectly definite form features can be in any way reflected back 

 upon the ovum "i Can we think of the germ as vibrating 

 sympathetically with each acquired peculiarity of the parent 



