CHAPTER IX, 



ON THE ABEYANCE OF MEMORY. 



LET us assume, for the moment, that the action of each 

 impregnate germ is due to memory, which, as it were, 

 pulsates anew in each succeeding generation, so that 

 immediately on impregnation, the germ's memory 

 reverts to the last occasion on which it was in a like 

 condition, and recognising the position, is at no loss 

 what to do. It is plain that in all cases where there 

 are two parents, that is to say, in the greater number 

 of cases, whether in the vegetable or animal kingdoms, 

 there must be two such last occasions, each of which 

 will have an equal claim upon the attention of the 

 new germ. Its memory would therefore revert to 

 both, and though it would probably adhere more closely 

 to the course which it took either as its father or its 

 mother, and thus come out eventually male or female, 

 yet it would be not a little influenced by the less 

 potent memory. 



And not only this, but each of the germs to which 

 the memory of the new germ reverts, is itself imbued 

 with the memories of its own parent germs, and these 

 again with the memories of preceding generations, and 



