BY HEBER A. LONGMAN. i> 



or for mould.s. rule them out because of the lack of marked 

 distinctions between soma and germ-plasm. When 

 experiments show that lirine shrimps ( Arfemia) may ])e 

 transformed from one type to another by lessening the 

 salinity of the water, Professor Thomson suggests that 

 " the altered salinity simply pulled the trigger of 

 variability." 



In a review of this suliject, H. M. Fuchs quotes* a 

 large number of experiments b}' W. E. Castle and J. C. 

 Phillips. Kammerer and others which yield contradictory 

 evidence. Kammerer's results with ingrafted ovaries in 

 salamanders demonstrate that the characters of the 

 foster-soma had impressed themselves on the grafted 

 ovary. Fuchs concludes that ' we are compelled to 

 question the teaching of Weismann regarding the total 

 independence of the " germ-plasm." 



Experiments with j^lants are also contradictory. 

 When the seeds of lowland Capsella were so\\n in high 

 altitudes, plants of the distinct highland type developed, 

 whereas the highland form remained true when l^red in 

 the lowlands. Alpine specimens of SoUdago also retained 

 their peculiarities when removed to lowlands, the 

 acquired characteristics being heritable. Niigeli's similar 

 experiments with Hieracivm. however, showed no stability. 

 the environment being capable of transforming and 

 retransforming them. 



Adami quaintly remarks that around this question 

 '' there has been developed such a muddle that no amount 

 of midnight oil and wet cloths bound around the temples 

 permit the ordinary mortal to disentangle and follow the 

 course of one theory.'" Although the writer has not been 

 driven to the exigencies suggested, this address may 

 demonstrate still further the truth of Adami's remarks. 

 One thing is clear : the processes of nature were not 

 teleologically conceived to meet the needs of students o; 

 philosophical ))iology. 



There may be, as in the conflict over the hanging 

 trophy shield of old, one side of which was golden and the 

 other silver, two correct views. Just as in the long record 



*H. M. Fuchs: -'Bedrock," April, 1914. 



