TRANSMISSION OF CHARACTER 197 



herited, which we have thus far called "acquired charac- 

 ters." 



Montgomery's definition goes nearer the root of 

 the matter. He questions whether the difference be- 

 tween modifications produced during the development 

 of germ cells and later modifications is so very essen- 

 tial. Weismann himself, when he introduced germ- 

 inal selection as a factor of development had to admit 

 that the victory of determinants in their struggle for 

 life was directly influenced by the supply of certain 

 substances and by nutrition, a view somewhat similar 

 to Montgomery's. 



If the term "acquired characters" assumes in Mont- 

 gomery's almost Lamarckian conception a very broad 

 meaning (in accordance with his interpretation of the 

 process by which those characters are transmitted 

 hereditarily), the definition given by Weismann and 

 his followers, which presupposes the independence of 

 the germ plasm from the rest of the body, is too nar- 

 row and too exclusive. The only characters which 

 Weismann considers as really acquired are those 

 which, appearing at first in one part of the body and 

 due to the action of some external condition, after- 

 wards influence the germ cells. He thus excludes all 

 cases in which an action is exerted simultaneously on 

 the soma and on the germ cells, and he challenges the 

 Lamarckians to prove that this condition obtains in 

 the cases they instance. Let us give an example: 



