A REJOINDER 177 



as the carrier of the unit-characters which determine 

 the number and the quaUties of the cells of a particular 

 group in the adult. A\Tiat does it matter if such an 

 embryonic cell carries one, two, three, or more unit- 

 characters ? So long as it is that cell which has 

 dropped out from the hereditary mechanism, the whole 

 group of unit-characters carried by it behave as a 

 single-whole, and the adult organism will have lost not 

 one but a number of qualities. It is conceivable that 

 the differences which distinguish some hooligans from 

 some respectable people, which mark the brilliant 

 person from one a little less brilliant, which contrast the 

 lethargic with the active, and which stamps the differ- 

 ence between the orator of Celtic fire and overflowing 

 language with the unimpassioned person of few and 

 adequate words, may be due to the presence or absence 

 of such embryonic cells carrying one or more unit- 

 characters. Or, the absence of such cells may be rather 

 potential than actual, and due to the presence of some 

 inhibiting factor, which, although the early embryonic 

 cell or cells were present, may have inhibited their 

 subsequent multiplication by division. 



These contentions I am quite aware are at 

 present hypothetical, but they arise from the 

 knowledge of our day. If we must go forward in 

 advance of the knowledge of the present, then let us 

 follow the road which that knowledge best indicates, 

 rather than the one which runs in an opposite 

 direction. 



But we can look at the question in another way. 

 An individual may be conceived to be made up of a 



