456 MARCUS HARTOG [june 



and carries with it a fallacious and question-begging connotation of the 

 " liberation " of Weismannic determinants. 1 



The debt all thinkers in biology owe to Weismann makes the 

 writing of this abstract an ungrateful, if necessary, task. To go 

 further and to criticise is fortunately unnecessary. 



Canons. 



Canon I. — If one of many possible hypothetical explanations of a 

 process is refuted, Weismann' s explanation of that process is peoved. 



Example. — "In the face of such facts the hypothesis of a general 

 power of regeneration, which restores the life crystal to its integrity, 

 is obviously untenable. Here the crystal is restored after an older 

 pattern, and one cannot see why this should be so, since the whole 

 has been no more altered than a dodecahedral crystal would be if the 

 point were broken off. If in that case the missing portion were 

 suddenly to be recrystallised on another ' system,' it could only be 

 because the elements from which the restoration started were not the 

 remaining whole but particular parts belonging to another system, or 

 — to translate into the language of biology [this is a synonym for 

 expression in terms of the germ plasm hypothesis] — because at the 

 injured place there were regeneration ' Anlagen ' of earlier origin, 

 which came into play as the result of the injury. The existence of 

 'Anlagen' is thereby proved" [Q.E.D.], p. 313. 



Canon II. — A statement that facts are only possible on Weismann' s 

 hypothesis is proved by repeating the statement with one or more of its 

 terms replaced by synonyms or synonymous •phrases. 



Example. — " Determinants [defined seven lines below as ' working- 

 living particles which operate during the course of development in a 

 definite manner, so that the part they have to determine is thereby 

 produced '] must be present because the parts of the organism are 

 capable of individual and transmissible variation, and this is only 

 possible if there are in the germ plasm living particles related to 

 definite parts of the perfect organism" [i.e. determinants'], p. 321. 



Canon III. — A fact contrary to Weismann s doctrine may be (a) 

 dropped, or (b) reversed. 



Example (a). — " But further investigations by Blochmann and 

 myself led to the discovery that parthenogenetic eggs only form one 

 polar body, while those which require fertilisation always form two " 

 (p. 324) ; [the fact dkopped is that the bee's egg ahvays forms two polar 

 bodies, and yet will develope — into a drone — without " requiring fertilisa- 

 tion "]. 



Example (b). — " Thus the conclusion has been gradually more and 

 more firmly established that in the sex-cells of animals as well as in 



1 For the translation or mis-translation, however, Prof. Weismann, who was good 

 enough to send ns his German MS., is in no way responsible. — [Ed. Nat. Sci.] 



