THE LIVING MACHINE BUILDING FACTORS. 177 



the characters concealed in the original chromo- 

 somes of the egg, although each contains a 

 part which may have been derived from each 

 parent. It is thought, however, that a part of 

 the original chromatin material does not thus 

 become differentiated, bub remains entirely un- 

 changed as the individual is developing. This 

 chromatin material may increase in amount by 

 assimilation, but it remains unchanged during 

 the entire growth of the individual. It thus 

 follows that the adult will contain, along with 

 its differentiated material, a certain amount 

 of the original physical basis of heredity which 

 still retains its original powers. This ^differ- 

 entiated chromatin material originally possessed 

 powers of producing a new individual, and of 

 course it still possesses these powers, since it 

 has remained dormant without alteration. 

 Further, it will follow that if this dormant 

 undifferentiated chromatin should start into 

 activity and produce a new individual, the 

 new individual thus produced would be identi- 

 cal in all characters with the one which actu- 

 ally did develop from the egg, since both 

 individuals would have come from a bit of the 

 same chromatin. The child would be like the 

 parent. This would be true no matter how much 

 this undifferentiated material should increase in 

 amount by assimilation, so long as it remained un- 

 altered in character, and it hence follows that 

 every individual carries around a certain amount 

 of undifferentiated chromatin material in all 

 respects identical with that from which he 

 developed. 



