Problems of Gametic Constitution" 83 



ARCHITECTURE OF THE GERMINAL MATERIAL. 



The concept one forms of the germinal material depends to no small degree 

 upon the nature of one's underlying philosophical viewpoint, and to a lesser 

 extent upon the nature of one's perceptual experiences with organisms, whether 

 descriptive and morphological, genetic, developmental, physiological, vitalistic, 

 or mechanistic, with plants or animals. 



With those who look upon living substance as something different in kind 

 from the other integrations of the planet I have nothing in common. From 

 what we know of this substance upon this planet I see no reason for thinking 

 that the same order of cosmic phenomena are to be found upon any other, nor 

 any reason for supposing that the living materials are anything other than the 

 natural geological consequences of a zone of great and constantly changing 

 stresses between the atmosphere and lithosphere and living objects, but the 

 complex integrations of the materials and forces acting in ceaseless integrations 

 of matter and changes in energy in this contact zone of intense metamorphic 

 activity. 



I must look upon organisms merely as a geological-stratum complex, ever 

 changing in thickness and intensity of manifestation, presenting rhythmic alter- 

 ations with the astronomical rhythm of the seasons, and in longer periods as 

 earth forms change in geologic activities, and I must conceive of " life," its 

 origin, activities, and evolution, as due to the same physical and mechanistic 

 forces of action and result as are found in other earth phenomena, only more 

 complicated and labile. 



Through all the history of the planet there has been, as far as there is 

 evidence, since the beginning of living things, genetic continuity of a germinal 

 basis, relatively minute in quantity, wonderfully complex in its potentialities 

 for producing almost endless secondary manifestations under appropriate con- 

 ditions of the medium. Of this genetic continuity, first clearly put forth by 

 Darwin, and of the existence of a genetically continuous germinal material basis 

 so clearly presented by Weismann, there is no doubt. In this aspect, often 

 termed self-perpetuating, this product of the planet differs from all others, but 

 is not of itself self -perpetuating solely — only to the extent that it has presented 

 to it in the zone of its action to requisite conditions of atmosphere and litho- 

 sphere, plus the larger astronomical relations of the planet, to produce the 

 necessary constellation of conditions for the phenomena we call development 

 and growth. 



There is no escape from the concept that evolution and all organic activities 

 are conditioned and governed by the relations of this germ-plasm to its environ- 

 ment, and that understanding of the many phenomena that we and all other 

 organisms possess and show depend upon the discovery of the nature of the 

 germ-plasm and of its relations to the different environmental factors that 

 provide for its secondary or somatic modifications and for its metamorphosis 

 or evolution. 



Many concepts of the architecture of this material have been formed; no 

 doubt many more must receive consideration before its nature is comprehended. 

 Moreover, the problem is not the same throughout all living things, having one 

 aspect in plani^, another in animals, and different aspects within both of these 



