The Message of Science. 71 



That many groups of the somatic cells tend to senes- 

 cence and exhaustion, in time, is apparently true, but this 

 tendency should not be looked upon from the standpoint of 

 the fatalist. Beyond doubt it is a tendency and a condi- 

 tion which can be remedied. The science which discovers 

 the condition, will erelong discover the remedy. The 

 brain group of cells tends least to senescence. 



It is but natural that having brought forward his hy- 

 pothesis of the germ-plasm, Professor Weismann should 

 attribute a leading r61e to this group of cells and give it 

 marked prominence. This is seen in his unqualified 

 assertion that the individual exists solely for the purpose 

 of bearing forward the germ-plasm from generation to 

 generation. This deduction is true in a sense, but hardly 

 in that sense of finality which Professor Weismann is in- 

 clined to ascribe. Beyond doubt it is difficult to say why 

 life exists at all. The purposes and intents of creation 

 are not as clear to the biologist as to the theologian. 

 Professor Weismann holds that the individual animal, or 

 human, lives as long as is necessary to bring forth and 

 foster offspring, no longer, then dies because its death is 

 necessary for the good of the species, or, strictly speaking, 

 the good of the germ-plasm. If this assertion, with its 

 incident fatalism, were restricted to evolution in the past 

 and cast no black shadow on the future of evolution, it 

 would be more rational, less repugnant to the bond 

 " individual," who is made to play the r61e of a hopeless 



