I0I2 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



routine or metabolism of the parent. In a few cases the subtle 

 quality of immunity, acquired by a mammalian mother, may be 

 exhibited by the offspring; but this is probably due to the inter- 

 changes that go on between mother and offspring during the 

 intimate symbiosis of ante-natal life. 



The question, that remains open, is the familiar one, not very 



Fig. 174. 



The Strange State of "Physogastry" in the Guest of an Ant. A, the bloated 

 abdomen; E, the tube of a gland secreting an acceptable exudation. 

 After Wheeler. 



happily expressed in the words: "Are individually acquired charac- 

 ters transmissible?" Perhaps this is better: Can a structural change 

 in the body, induced by some new peculiarity in use or disuse, or in 

 diet, or in surrounding influences, affect the germ cells in such a 

 specific or representative way that the offspring will, through its 

 inheritance, exhibit, even in a slight degree, the modification which 

 the parent acquired? A good term for an "acquired character", in 



Deformed 



Fig. 175. 



'Physogastric" Guest of an Ant. A, abdomen, much swollen; 

 E, duct of gland. After Wheeler. 



the sense of the Spencer- Weismann controversy, is a "bodily modifi- 

 cation", or an "exogenous somatic modification". These modifica- 

 tions are common ; the question is whether they are ever hereditarily 

 transmitted from parents to offspring — hereditarily entailed in a 

 specific and representative way? Was Lamarck right, was Darwin 

 right, in answering this question in the affirmative? For it should 

 be noted that while Darwin attached only a secondary importance 



