THE INFLUENCES OF NURTURE 97 



Thus the red Chinese primrose has red or white flowers 

 according to the temperature ; we have not here to do 

 with modification, but with alternatives of hereditary 

 expression. A true modification is something more or 

 less novel, a directly impressed dint. Yet this word 

 ' dint ' must not be taken in any wooden way, for the 

 organism is not like passive clay in the potter's hands. 

 Even the environmentally produced modifications are 

 the result of reactions on the organism's part. To tell 

 the truth, none of our words and frameworks ever fit 

 the living creature perfectly, for it is quite legitimate, 

 though we doubt if it is useful, for the critic of the con- 

 trast between modifications and variations (what is 

 impressed and what is expressed) to say that no struc- 

 tural response can be got from the organism save what 

 it was by hereditary nature capable of giving. 



(d) It tends to clearness if a distinction is drawn 

 between modifications and their secondary consequences. 

 The body is a unity ; part is bound to part ; if one 

 member suffer, other members may sufEer with it. 

 But it is useful to distinguish the original modifica- 

 tion from correlated changes that may follow in its 

 train. 



The Question of Transmission. — It is certain that 

 modifications may mean much for the individual. They 

 may even save its life. But can they be handed on ? 

 The question is whether a modification can affect the 

 germ-cells of the organism in such a definite way that 

 the offspring, not subjected to the nurtural peculiarity 

 that modified the parent, will through inheritance exhibit 



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