THE. REPRODUCTIVE FACTOR IN EVOLUTION. 



305 



transmitted as a legacy to the offspring. According to Weis- 

 mann, and not a few others independent of and dependent on 

 him, this has been a delusion. Not only is positive proof of 

 such transmission of ^(r^2/z><f^ characters, i.e.^ other than those of 

 constitutional, congenital, or germinal origin, so scanty and 

 unsatisfactory that His has not hesitated to call the catalogue 

 of cases a mere " handful of anecdotes," but the connection 

 between the body-cells and the sex-elements seems to Weis- 

 mann and his school so far from close or dependent, that there 

 is a great probability against any " somatic " dint or modification 



Two adjacent animal cells, showing communications through 

 adjacent intercellular substance; also the protoplasmic 

 network, and the nucleus. — After Pfitzner. 



directly affecting the reproductive elements, — that is to say, 

 affecting the offspring. If the reproductive elements, in spite 

 of the close connection between all parts of the body, or even 

 between cell and cell (see above fig.), do lead such a charmed 

 physiological life within the organism that they are unaffected 

 directly by changes in the other parts of the body, then an 

 optimism of heredity is demonstrable. How far we believe 

 it from being so cannot be here discussed, but the conse- 

 quences of Weismann's conclusion to the general theory of 

 evolution must be re-emphasised. If individually acquired 

 characters are of importance only to the individual body, they 



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