GENEOLOGICAL. 417 



sequences will be inherited." But it is quite illegiti- 

 mate to slump '' acquired characters and their con- 

 sequences '^ as if the distinction was immaterial. 

 The illustrious author of the Germ-Plasm has 

 made it quite clear that there is a very great differ- 

 ence between admitting that the germ-plasm has no 

 charmed life, insulated from bodily influences, and 

 admitting the transmissibility of a particular ac- 

 quired character^ even in the faintest degree. The 

 point, let us repeat, is this: Does a change in the 

 body, induced by use or disuse or by a change in 

 surroundings, influence the germ-plasm in such a 

 specific or representative way that the offspring will 

 exhibit the same modification which the parent ac- 

 quired or even a tendency towards it. 



Even when we fully recognise the unity of the 

 organism, that each part shares in the life of the 

 whole, it is very difficult for those who accept the 

 belief in the inheritance of acquired characters to 

 suggest any modus operandi whereby a particular 

 modification in the brain or the little toe, the root or 

 the petal, can specifically affect the germinal material 

 in such a way that the modification or a tendency 

 towards it becomes part of the inheritance. Did we 

 accept Darwin's provisional hypothesis of pangen- 

 esis according to which the parts of the body give 

 off gemmules which are carried as samples to the 

 germ-cells, the possibility of transfer might seem 

 more intelligible. But Darwin's suggestion remains 

 a pure hypothesis, and is accepted by none except in 

 extremely modified form. Indeed it may be recalled 

 that it was the failure of his attempt to find con- 

 firmation of Darwin's hypothesis by experiments on 

 the transfusion of blood which led Galton many years 

 ago to doubt whether there was any inheritance of 

 27 



