DEGENERACY TEEDGOLD. 555 



and that this may determine its immunity or vulnerability; or the 

 same result may be brought about by the absence or deficiency of 

 some internal secretion. This question is one of great moment, but 

 it is too intricate to enter upon in this place. 



The fact is, then, that not only are there no a priori reasons 

 against the modification of the germ plasm by the environment, in 

 spite of much reiteration to the contrary, but there are many such 

 reasons in favor of this modification taking place. Doubtless the 

 germ material possesses a considerable degree of resistance to the 

 action of the environment ; for, were it otherwise, and did it reflect 

 every transient change, racial stability could hardly exist. But 

 there is a great difference between some degree of resistance and 

 absolute immunity; and when we remember that after all the germ 

 plasm is still living protoplasm and consequently dependent for its 

 sustenance upon the quantity and quality of the fluids supplied to 

 it, the view that it can lead a charmed life, utterly uninfluenced by 

 any condition of its host, is untenable. As Beard says, " the germ 

 cell must react to and be influenced by its environment" — a con- 

 clusion not only accepted by most competent biologists of the present 

 day, but acquiesced in by Weismann himself. 



However, the question is no longer one of speculation and a priori 

 reasoning. "Whatever may be asserted of the theoretical impossi- 

 bility that the germ cell should be adversely affected by its environ- 

 ment, there is now very clear evidence that it is so affected ; and to 

 some of this evidence we may briefly refer. One of the earliest 

 observations (1861) was that of Dr. Constantin Paul regarding the 

 effect of lead. This observer found that out of 32 pregnancies, in 

 which the father alone suffered from lead poisoning, the mother 

 being free from that condition, 12 of the children were stillborn, 

 8 died during the first, 4 during the second, and 5 during the third 

 year of life, while another died later in childhood. Similar 

 data were published by Lize (1862) regarding workers exposed to 

 the fumes of nitrate of mercury. Out of 12 pregnancies in which 

 the father alone was exposed, there were 4 stillbirths ; of the remain- 

 ing 8 children, 3 died before the fourth year, and only one of those 

 who survived could be described as vigorous. The toxic effects of 

 alcohol upon growing protoplasm are well known; and, since exper- 

 imentation with this is comparatively easy, it has naturally formed 

 the subject of many investigations. One of the most recent is that 

 by Stockard upon guinea pigs, by which it was shown that the net 

 result of 24 matings of alcoholized fathers with normal mothers 

 was only 5 surviving offspring, or no more than might have been 

 expected from a single pairing of two healthy animals: and, further, 

 that at the age of two months these 5 survivors were only half the 

 usual size. Dr. E. Bertholet, after a series of microscopical exami- 



