Nature of Heredity and Problem of Mechanism 321 



uses as a synonym for germ-plasm, liolds a commanding 

 place in his mind. This is clear from many direct state- 

 ments, as for example that of the conception that chromatin 

 is the ^^seat of heredity," while proto])L'ism is the '^expres- 

 sion^ of it.^"^ But a "seat" as thus used is always some- 

 thing far more fundamental and interesting than an "expres- 

 sion." For instance, in Osborn's enterprise the "matter and 

 form" which, as indicated above, he proposes to move away 

 from, would come under the head of "expression" ratlier 

 than "seat." There are several highly significant things 

 about these speculations, only one of which is it justifiable 

 to mention here. That is the curious dualism into which 

 Osborn is led. As between Body- and Heredity-chromatin, 

 he conceives a sort of independence which reminds one of the 

 independence of Body and Mind assumed by the hypothesis 

 of psycho-physical parallelism. His theory of hctcroplasy 

 conceives that "we are studying not one but four sinml- 

 taneous evolutions." ^^ Of these four one is the Inorganic 

 Environment and another the Life Environment. That is, 

 two pertain to the Environment, so that the other two per- 

 tain to what in ordinary biology is considered the organism. 

 But in Osborn's theory the "developing organism (proto- 

 plasm and body-chromatin)" is only one of the two evolu- 

 tions, the other being "heredity-chromatin." In otlier words, 

 so far as evolution is concerned, the organism is one thing, 

 having its laws of evolution which are pretty well known, 

 while the heredity-chromatin is quite another thing, the evo- 

 lutionary laws of which are still to be discovered. 



This will suffice to indicate how uniquely dominant a role 

 chromatin, or the heredity variety of it, plays in this sig- 

 nificant speculation. A direct examination of it is not 

 necessary, since our whole argument will be recognized as 

 incompatible wdth it. We may, however, call attention to 

 the unmistakable indications scattered through the theoreti- 

 cal part of The Origin and Evolution of Life that so far 



