INERTIA AS RELATED TO HEREDITY 77 



effect phenomenon induced by gravitation and 

 stretching beyond the life of the individual as 

 a phenomenon of inherent or stable induction 

 and therefore an inheritable disposition." * After 

 quoting this passage Mr. Robertson f continues, 

 " For the more or less indelible impression of this 

 character by summation of effects the property of 

 inertia would be a necessary preliminary. On account 

 of their greater functional inertia, polarity is more 

 indelibly stamped on some plants than on others, 

 and in the latter in consequence of their smaller 

 degree of inertia, it is possible to alter the polarity 

 by the influence of external conditions. It would 

 seem that in the acquirement of characters generally 

 by living matter, i.e., in education of protoplasm, 

 functional inertia is a factor of great import- 

 ance." Protoplasmic inertia, then, is responsible for 

 hereditary transmission, either of morphological^ 

 physiological, or, as we shall see, psychical features, 

 i.e., the offspring is, to a large extent, maintaining, 

 i.e., reproducing, the parental status quo. In this 

 connection we have to notice these cases of " pre- 

 formed adaptation" of which WeissmannJ says, 

 " External conditions have only served to bring 

 some preformed adaptation into activity." That is 

 to say, in the individual exhibiting them, preformed 

 adaptations are not causally dependent on the en- 



* Detmer, " Physiology," p. 507. 



f R. A. Robertson, " Latent Life of Plants," Trans. Bot. Soc. 

 Edin., 1902. 



J Weissmann, " Romanes Lecture," 1894, Nature, vol. 1. p. 31. 



