INERTIA AS RELATED TO HEREDITY 75 



change, that the conservative forces far outweigh all 

 tendencies to vary." Without using the term, it 

 seems to me very evident that what these authors 

 are describing is functional inertia in the species 

 the inherent something, the conservative something 

 that is oblivious of environment, that holds on the 

 even tenor of its way, the tendency not to change 

 though all else changes ; this is functional inertia, 

 the stability, the insusceptibility, the " fatal " 

 reverter. This is " the something that stands over 

 against variability " in the mind of Mr. Gardiner,* 

 who again expresses himself thus : " Variation, 

 then, is a consequence of the union of two sexual 

 germ-plasms, and not something inherent in the 

 protoplasm " the something that is " inherent " 

 in the protoplasm is the inertial property. Mr. 

 Spencer f uses the term " mechanism of inheritance," 

 and asserts it must be the one through which 

 metabolism operates. One aspect of metabolism 

 the inertial is more particularly related to it, the 

 functional mechanism whereby is maintained the 

 status quo as inherited of family, species, order or 

 race. The botanists, in particular, are impressed 

 with reversion to and stability of type, phe- 

 nomena of plants which need not surprise us when 

 we recollect how largely anabolic is the inertia 

 of vegetables. De Varigny, in his " Experimental 

 Evolution," makes prominent this aspect of his 



* E. G. Gardiner, " On the Origin of Death," " Wood's Holl 

 Lectures," 1890, p. 116. 



f Spencer, " Wood's Holl Lectures," 1904, p. 29. 



