198 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



rule all organic growth and change assuredly, cannot accept 

 the view that Natural Selection and germinal accidents 

 are the sole causes of variation. Such conclusions imply 

 entirely different laws for similar aggregates, and have 

 an unholy resemblance to vitalism, the conception of 

 entelechies, or to Driesch's rudimentary psychoids, surely 

 the most humorous extravagance since Hartzoeker's 

 Homunculus. 



It has not been my intention in this paper to point to 

 the strong evidence in favour of transmission of acquisi- 

 tions. 1 Cunningham, MacBride, Kammerer, and others 

 can take care of themselves, and have presented many 

 enigmas to those who would solve them on the principle 

 of the continuity of germ-plasm. To those, however, 

 who have read the chapter on Repair in Evolution it will 

 be obvious that the evidence brought forward there must 

 be rebutted, distorted, or rejected, without consideration 

 of the general laws of mechanical or other construction, 

 if the theory that variations are due to the phenomena 

 of fertilization is to have the remotest chance of survival. 

 I may, however, remark that further reading and con- 

 sideration have confirmed me in the view that variational 

 repair takes place during embryonic growth owing to 

 increased functional activity due to relative changes of 

 catalytic elements in the parent. To those with the 

 smallest knowledge of histology the phenomena of muscle 

 growth alone are sufficient to prove this, unless they are 

 content to believe that small minute variation can con- 

 struct such a wonderful though obviously repaired organ 

 as the heart. Organ-forming substances there undoubtedly 

 are, but they must finally be translated into chemical or 

 biochemical agents, probably of a discoverable kind, 



1 See Appendix B. The Peroncus Tcrtius. 



