almost as mysterious 25 



were introduced. As seen by the fish the 

 mosaic so produced would appear more or 

 less foreshortened; but presently for all 

 that the fish became mottled like the bottom, 

 not as it appeared to them at rest, but as it 

 would appear to an observer looking down 

 from above, like the enemies the fish had 

 to elude. Also it is perhaps noteworthy that 

 there is at least a very intimate connexion 

 one way between body-plasm and germ- 

 plasm, as the extirpation of the reproduc- 

 tive glands shews. 



But in the third place not only is the 

 inheritance of acquired characters said to 

 be without specific evidence, not only is it 

 declared inconceivable and so incredible 

 a p7'iori, but in what he calls "germinal 

 continuity " Weismann claims to have found 

 direct and positive proof that it is actually 

 impossible. At the same time he contends 



