102 THE BIOCOSM03 PRELIMINARY. 



entire differentiation of life on the planet. 

 The past, with its accumulated stores, vital 

 and mental, has to be put through this genetic 

 point in order to be perpetuated and recreat- 

 ed. Thought, civilisation, morals and institu- 

 tions, whose bearer is man, have somehow to 

 make the trip with him through the cell to 

 reach their destination in the future. The re- 

 sult is that what may be called cellular here- 

 dity has the dominant stress in the biology of 

 today. Its practical application is of far- 

 reaching consequence, especially in the social 

 order; with it is connected Galton's new sci- 

 ence of Eugenics, suggesting race-culture, as 

 well as race-suicide. 



Indeed, organic evolution has been largely 

 turned into cellular evolution. Darwin had 

 little to do with the cell ; it was evidently alien 

 to him, though the chief facts of its structure 

 were known in his time. For instance, Vir- 

 chow's great book on Cellular Pathology, 

 epoch-making in this field, appeared contem- 

 poraneously with Darwin's Origin of Species. 

 It was, however, the German biologist Weiss- 

 mann who had the chief hand in giving this 

 bent to his science, through his doctrine of 

 germinal continuity, which regards heredity 

 proper to be transmitted by the germ-cells 

 and not by the body-cells. The chief contribu- 

 tion of Virchow is contained in his famous 



