Modification of Germinal Constitution of Organisms 227 



the conditions into which they were born lead one to 

 conclude that what is actually produced in many of these 

 modifications are pathological germinal variations, rather 

 than healthy germinal conditions which can be perpetuated 

 indefinitely in nature. It should further be noted that in 

 these modifications the changes were essentially in the 

 amount of pigment which was produced in definite areas, 

 especially in the color pattern of the pronotum and elytra, 

 and while the change existed through the body as a whole, it 

 is not thereby established that the fundamental pattern 

 upon which these attributes are based was in any way 

 altered. All that is certain is that there was produced a 

 permanent modification of the capacity to produce pigment 

 in the form of spots or stripes in definite areas. 



In these modified organisms the capacity to produce 

 pigment is by no means absent, as for example, in albida, 

 where dark color could be subsequently produced upon any 

 part of the body by wounds, etc., giving a considerable 

 amount of the same dark pigment in the hypodermis and 

 in the lower layers of the cuticula. The capacity to 

 produce both the oxidizing agent and the chromogen is 

 present, but the pigment is not produced in a definite loca- 

 tion; in other words, whatever it is in the organism that 

 determines localization is inactive, and pigment production 

 is inhibited by some unknown inhibitor. 



The production of variations in pattern by means of 

 intense stimuli has not, in my experience, been accompanied 

 by what I regard as conspicuous success. Variations have 

 been produced, but these variations are often of a pathologi- 

 cal character and could not be produced under the condi- 

 tions imposed by nature. Permanent variations, however, 

 in the pattern are obtainable by a combination of external 



