TABOO AND GENETICS 9 



innumerable kinds of cells, a few (the germ cells) 

 specialized for reproduction, the others forming 

 the body which eats, moves, sees, feels, and in 

 the case of man, thinks. But the germ-cells or 

 germplasm continue to be immortal or deathless 

 in the same sense as in the simplest organisms. 

 The body, in a historical sense, grew up around 

 the germ-cells, taking over functions a little at 

 a time, until in the higher animals nutrition 

 and other activities and a large part even of the 

 reproductive process itself is carried on by body- 

 cells. 



When we think of a man or woman, we think 

 of an individual only one of whose innumerable 

 activities — reproduction — is carried on by germ- 

 cells, and this one only at the very beginning 

 of the life of a new individual. Human societies, 

 needless to remark, are not organized by germ- 

 plasms, but by brains and hands — composed of 

 body cells. If these brains and hands — if 

 human bodies — did not wear out or become 

 destroyed, we should not need to trouble our- 

 selves so much about the germplasm, whose sole 

 function in human society is to replace them. 



Since the individual human bodies and minds 

 which seek after the things to which we mortals 

 attach value — moral worth, esthetic and other 

 pleasure, achievement and the like — do have 

 to be replaced every few years, the germplasms 

 from which new individuals must come have 



