232 



BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



tion, which characterized the old evolution, has lost all scien- 

 tific standing. So far the triumph of epigenesis has been 

 complete, as all admit. 



But the word preformation still has its use in an entirely 

 different sense. We speak of the germ as the preformed 

 foundation of the organism to which it gives rise, meaning, 

 not that the adult form is already outlined in all its parts, but 

 that the initial stage alone exists prior to, and different from, 

 the stages that are to follow. In this sense preformation 

 stands in no contradiction with postformation or epigenesis, 

 for both are complementary phases of one development. De- 

 velopment begins with a minimum of preformation and in- 

 creases this by every increment of postformation, until both 

 the pre and the post are abrogated in complete formation. 



The further we examine the new idea of preformation, the 

 clearer it becomes that it differs toto coelo from the old notion. 

 It does not allow that even the minimum of preformation with 

 which development begins was an original creation. The 

 germ is a preformation and at the same time a new formation. 

 Germs are continually forming as the result of growth and self- 

 division. The new germs are the preexisting germs enlarged 

 and divided. How the original ancestral germs arose we do 

 not know. We find no evidence of spontaneous generation, 

 but it does not accord with what we know to suppose that they 

 were originally just what they are to-day. As all later stages 

 of development are variable, we see no reason for supposing 

 the initial stages invariable. In fact, germs must have varied, 

 or the evolution of organisms is a myth. But the simplest 

 germs we know grow and multiply by self-division. They do 

 not arise agenetically like crystals, and we do not see how 

 germs could be so simplified as to arise by chemico-physical 

 combinations. The simplest term of the developmental series 

 presupposes the coexistence of the fundamental powers of 

 growth and self-division as absolutely indispensable conditions 

 of heredity and variation. Yet we do not fall back on the 

 rejected hypothesis of original creation. If there ever was a 

 time when no organic elements of the nature of germs existed 

 and of this we are by no means sure — then we feel war- 



