I 



BEARERS OF THE HEREDITARY QUALITIES 63 



rom the foregoing and other arguments may be illustrated by 



wo or three quotations from recognised authorities. Prof. O. 



ertwig says : " The female nuclear material transmits the 



characters of the mother, the male nucleus those of the father, 



|to the offspring." Prof. Strasburger says for higher plants : 

 ' The process of fertilisation depends upon the union of the 



sperm-nucleus with the nucleus of the egg-cell ; the cell-substance 

 cytoplasm) does not share in the process; the cell-substance 

 }f the pollen-grain is only the vehicle to conduct the generative 



micleus to its destination." Prof. Weismann says : " We can 

 hardly ascribe to the body of the ovum a higher import than 



•"ig. 16. — A pollen grain, a, the two nuclei, with their chromosomes ; 

 b, the general protoplasm ; c, the outer wall. (From Carnoy.) 



chat of being the common nutritive basis for the two conjugating 

 luclei." 



Criticism. — 1. "The life of a complex multicellular organism 

 :ertainly depends upon the inter-relations and interactions of 

 nany parts ; the life of a cell apparently depends upon the 

 nter-relations and interactions of different parts of the cellular 

 rganisation, especially on the give-and-take between nucleo- 

 plasm and cytoplasm ; and it is not unlikely that life itself — 

 e. vital activity or function — may depend upon the inter- 

 elations and inter-actions of a number of complex substances, 

 one of which could by itself be called alive. Just as the secret 



