Paniculate Inheritance 145 



pendently, may be inherited independently from either 

 parent, without in any way disturbing the equilibrium of 

 the organism, or showing any correlation with other 

 variations. These facts, it is argued (by the partisans of 

 pre formation), compel us to believe that hereditary char- 

 acters are represented in the idioplasm by distinct and 

 definite germs (pangens, idioblasts, biophores, etc.), 

 which may vary, appear or disappear, become active or 

 latent, without affecting the general architecture of the 

 substance of which they form a part. Under any other 

 theory we must suppose variations to be caused by 

 changes in the molecular composition of the idioplasm as 

 a whole, and no writer has shown even in the most ap- 

 proximate manner how particulate inheritance can thus 

 be conceived." 119 



It is well known that this is really the principal argu- 

 ment, one might say the only one, which Galton brings 

 up in defense of his germs, substituted by him for the 

 gemmules of Darwin: "The independent origin of the 

 several parts of the body can be argued from the separate 

 inheritance of their peculiarities. If a child has its 

 father's eyes and its mother's mouth these two features 

 must have had a separate origin. Now, it is observed that 

 peculiarities even of a microscopic kind are transmissible 

 by inheritance, therefore it may be concluded that the 

 most minute parts of the body have separate origins." 12 



The argument which DeVries brings up in favor of 

 his pangens, or material particles representative of the 



118 E. B. Wilson: The Mosaic Theory of Development. Biol. 

 Lect. at the Mar. Biol. Lab. of Wood's Holl: Summer Session 1893. 

 Boston, U. S. A., Ginn, 1894. P- 3 4- 



120 Francis Galton : A Theory of Heredity. Journ. of the Anthro- 

 pological Institute. January 1876. P. 331. 



