86 HEREDITY. 



anatomy of two cells may be identical, yet one 

 may contain the life of a rabbit or a dog, the other 

 the undeveloped soul of a man. Chromatin is 



the physical basis of both; the difference is in 

 The Soul of a the resident lifCj the soul of the cdi Lying back 



of the physical organism, of each plant, animal 

 and man, there is the invisible, but none the less 

 substantial, psychic organism that constitutes the 

 basis of life and is the instrument of reproduction. 

 Conceding that we do not know what matter is, 

 The Primordial nor what life is, we do know that every living 

 organism is a union of the two. The Primordial 

 Cell, or the lowest form of life known to science, 

 consists anatomically of a closed sac of a trans- 

 parent membrane containing a semi-fluid sub- 

 stance (protoplasm) in which are suspended 

 molecules, granules, or other minute cells. Psycho- 

 logically the Primordial Cell consists of a 

 psychic organism capable of performing the func- 



of the parent organism. Darwin's theory of "Pangenesis," 

 which has attracted by far the widest attention, supposed 

 that during their lifetime every cell of the parent disengages 

 small living particles gemmules which find their way to 

 and are stored up in the generative cells ready to develop 

 in the next generation into cells similar to those from which 

 they came. These gemmules were supposed to retain the 

 impression not only of the cells from which they come, but 

 of the various conditions to which they have been exposed. 

 They circulate freely through the system, and by their union 

 form the sexual elements. They thus transmit to the off- 

 spring not only the original characters of the parents, but 

 the conditions to which they have been subjected. 



Gallon's Francis Galton put Darwin's theory to what he deemed 



Experiments. a most practical test. He proceeded upon the idea that if 



these gemmules are constantly given off by the cells, if 



they circulate freely through the system and if the repro- 



