II. ONTOGENY 357 



or A", there is an intimate correlation, and both A' and A" continu- 

 ously exert structural influence upon A'", an important assumption 

 which will be discussed in great detail in later Chapter, 



A 



A 



\ 



A 



Fig. 34. Relationship between germinal and somatic cells. 

 A : gene of germ cell. A', A" : genes of Tjomatic cells. 

 A'" : gene of mother germ cell. 



That A can reveal various structures under varying environmental 

 conditions must indicate that A consists of different proteins, each of 

 which has different memory, since a single protein may have commonly 

 only a single memory. Protein molecules having a similar memory may 

 form a gene and the memory may be involved in a restricted, specific 

 structure of the gene. Therefore, A must be a gene-complex, consisting 

 of many different genes. It is actually known that a single germ cell 

 is provided with numerous different genes. A can be converted to A' 

 under the environment of a', because there exists in A a gene having 

 the memory to recollect A'-structure under ^'-environment. If a gene 

 in A thus recovers the proper structure A', other genes remaining in 

 their undeveloped structures must be subjected to this developed gene, 

 and accordingly the protoplasm of the cell must have the structure 

 of A'. In a similar way, .B'-structure is established by another gene. 

 "Predisposition" of the organism must be such a memory of genes. 



A gene can change its structure in such an easy manner, but the 

 direction of the change is generally fixed, and a changed gene should, 

 as a rule, resume a definite structure under a given condition. There- 

 fore, the structure of a gene is generally constant under a given con- 

 dition. In this respect, the concept of the auther conflicts in no way 

 with the customary view of the constancy of genes. 



