BIOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF SAMUEL BUTLER 25 



However, the relations of germ and body just described 

 led Jager, Nussbaum, Galton, Lankester and, above all, Weis- 

 mann, to the view that the germ-cells or " stirp " (Galton) were 

 in the body but not of it. Indeed, in the body and out of it, 

 whether as reproductive cells set free or in the developing 

 embryo, they are regarded as forming one continuous homo- 

 geneity, in contrast to the differentiation of the body ; and it 

 is to these cells, regarded as a continuum, that the terms stirp 

 and germ-plasm are especially applied. Yet on this view, so 

 eagerly advocated by its supporters, we have to substitute for 

 the hypothesis of memory, which they declare to have no real 

 meaning here, the far more fantastic hypotheses of Weismann : 

 by these they explain the process of differentiation in the young 

 embryo into new germ and body ; and in the young body the 

 differentiation of its cells, each in due time and place, into the 

 varied tissue-cells and organs. Such views might perhaps be 

 acceptable if it could be shown that over each cell-division 

 there presided a wise all-guiding genie of transcending intellect, 

 to which Clerk-Maxwell's sorting demons were mere fools. 

 Yet these views have so enchanted many distinguished bio- 

 logists that in dealing with the subject they have actually 

 ignored the existence of equally able workers who hesitate to 

 share the extremest of their views. The phenomenon is one 

 well known in hypnotic practice. So long as the non-Weis- 

 mannian biologists deal with matters outside this discussion, 

 their existence and their work is rated at its just value ; but 

 any work of theirs on this point so affects the orthodox 

 Weismannite (whether he accept this label or reject it does 

 not matter), that for the time being their existence and the 

 good work they have done are alike non-existent.^ 



Butler founded no school and wished to found none. He 

 desired that what was true in his work should prevail, and 

 he looked forward calmly to the time when the recognition of 

 that truth and of his share in advancing it should give him in 

 the lives of others that immortality for which alone he craved. 



Lamarckian views have never lacked defenders here and 

 in America. Of the English, Herbert Spencer, who, however, 



' See Fortnightly Review^ February 1908, and Contemporary Reviciv, Septem- 

 ber and November 1909. Since these publications the hypnosis seems to have 

 gomewhat weakened. 



