TABOO AND GENETICS 19 



generations. Thus the germ cells in an in- 

 dividual living to-day are the lineal descendants, 

 by simple division, of the germ cells in his 

 ancestors as many generations, or thousands of 

 generations, ago as we care to imagine. All 

 the complicated body specializations and sex 

 phenomena may be regarded as super-imposed 

 upon or grouped around this succession of germ 

 cells, continuous by simple division. 



The type of body in each generation depends 

 upon this germplasm, but the germplasm is not 

 supposed to be in any way modified by the body 

 (except, of course, that severe enough accidents 

 might damage it). Thus we resemble our 

 parents only because the germplasm which 

 directs our development is a split-off portion of 

 the same continuous line of germ cells which 

 directed their development, that of their fathers, 

 and so on back. This now universally accepted 

 theory is called the " continuity of the germ- 

 plasm." 



It will be seen at once that this seems to 

 preclude any possibiUty of a child's inheriting 

 from its parents anything which these did not 

 themselves inherit. The bodies of each genera- 

 tion are, so to speak, mere " buds " from the 

 continuous hues of germplasm. If we develop 

 our muscles or our musical talent, this develop- 

 ment is of the body and dies with it, though the 

 physical basis or capacity we ourselves inherited 



