GERMINAL SELECTION 



in a swarm. And if there is competition among cells for food, 

 why not among the chromosomes within the cell, and why not 

 among the determinants within the chromosome ? 



Yet, is not the supply of food brought by the vascular fluids 

 of the body always more than sufficient ? Who can tell ? 

 When we consider, for instance, the enormous ovary of a cod 

 the familiar cod-roe of the breakfast-table and its legions of 

 eggs, can we be sure that the food-supply is always superabund- 

 ant ? Moreover, it is very improbable that all the hungry 

 units are equally well-placed ; how much more is there 

 likely to be inequality within the labyrinth of the ovum- 

 nucleus, which is a little world in itself ? And again, it by no 

 means follows that all the food supplied is appropriate, or that 

 all the homologous determinants are equally able to use it. 



As Weismann says, to suppose that food is always super- 

 abundant " seems to me much the same as if an inhabitant of 

 the moon, looking at this earth through an excellent telescope 

 and clearly descrying the city of Berlin, with its thronging crowds 

 and its railways, bringing in the necessaries of life from every 

 side, should conclude from this abundant provision that the 

 greatest superfluity prevailed within the town, and that every 

 one of its inhabitants had as much to live upon as he could 

 possibly require " (1904, vol. ii. p. 156). 



As an instance of severe criticism by an expert who sees no 

 utility in these imaginative interpretations, we may quote the 

 following passage from Prof. T. H. Morgan's Evolution and, 

 Adaptation (1903, p. 165) : " Weismann has piled up one hypo- 

 thesis on another as though he could save the integrity of the 

 theory of natural selection by adding new speculative matter 

 to it. The most unfortunate feature is that the new speculation 

 is skilfully removed from the field of verification, and invisible 

 germs, whose sole functions are those which Weismann's ima- 

 gination bestows on them, are brought forward as though they 



could supply the deficiencies of Darwin's theory. This is, 



30 



