642 Vehicles of the Hereditary Characters. 



acters arc located in the nucleus, and that in cell-division 

 they are transmitted from one cell-generation to the next. 

 In the nuclei, however, most of the pangenes are inactive. 

 To become active they must leave them or at least their 

 framework and take up a position in the surrounding- 

 parts of the cell-body. A detailed consideration of the 

 life phenomena of the cell has led me to the conclusion 

 that it is indispensable to assume that the influence of 

 the nucleus on the vital processes is a material one and 

 that it will be found, on closer examination, that even the 

 dynamic and enzymatic theories of this operation cannot 

 make superfluous the hypothesis, that pangenes form 

 the real substance of all protoplasm (he. eit., p. 202, 

 204). 



The recent investigations by Gerassimow on cells of 

 Spirogyra without nuclei or with two nuclei^ stronglv 

 support this view, and from the zoo-physiological side 

 Driesch and Hansemann have expressed themselves 

 similarly. - 



In the idioplasm of the nucleus the pangenes multiply 

 by division. A part of those which have been formed re- 

 mains in position and furnishes the vehicles of the hered- 

 itary characters for the next cell division. The other 

 part, however, emerges from the nucleus and becomes 

 active in the cytoplasm. Here they multiply so as to 

 contribute considerably to the material out of which the 

 sereral organs of the cell are built up, such as the 

 chromatophores, the outer layer of the protoplasts, the 

 walls of the vacuoles, etc. In this way they impose their 



^ J. J. Gerasstmow, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, igoi, Nos. i 

 and 2; Zcitschrift f. allg. Physiologic, I, 3, 1902, p. 220; see also the 

 literature cited there. 



^H. Driesch, Analytisclic Theoric dcr organischcn Entwkkelung, 

 1895; D. Hansemann in Virchozv's Arctiiv, Vol. CXIX, p. 315. 



