Art and Science 



the modifications of structure thereby en- 

 gendered, produce also an effect upon offspring, 

 which, though seldom perceptible as regards 

 structure in a single, or even in several genera- 

 tions, is nevertheless capable of being accumu- 

 lated in successive generations till it amounts 

 to specific and generic difference. I have 

 found the first point as much as I can treat 

 within the limits of this present article, and 

 will avail myself of the hospitality of the 

 Universal Review next month to deal with 

 the second. 



The proposition which I have to defend is 

 one which no one till recently would have 

 questioned, and even now, those who look 

 most askance at it do not venture to dispute 

 it unreservedly; they every now and then 

 admit it as conceivable, and even in some cases 

 probable ; nevertheless they seek to minimise 

 it, and to make out that there is little or no 

 connection between the great mass of the cells 

 of which the body is composed, and those 

 cells that are alone capable of reproducing 

 the entire organism. The tendency is to 



assign to these last a life of their own, apart 



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