38 The only ancestral plasms so far 



evolution of mortal multicellular organisms 

 with the wholly distinct evolution of immortal 

 unicellular organisms, we are utterly at a 

 loss to find any resemblance between the two. 

 No doubt amphimixis is a potent source 

 of congenital variations, and such variations 

 are the indispensable 2?om< cTappui for natural 

 selection. But what avails that if all possible 

 variations are confined to such unit-cha- 

 racters as the unicellular organisms display ? 

 As Henry VIII long ago remarked: "You 

 can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," 

 turn it how you will. And how, in view of 

 the stability of germ-plasm and its discon- 

 tinuity from body-plasm — which, according 

 to Weismann, are maintained throughout 

 multicellular evolution — the higher levels of 

 life were reached is a mystery. For, as De- 

 lage has said : — " Without the inheritance of 

 acquired characters there can be no new 



