238 Theories Treating of Inheritance 



cessive phylogenetic states; he appears sometimes to 

 exclude, sometimes to accept it. 



If he accepts this heaping up, the explanation of the 

 inheritance of acquired characters which the hypothesis 

 of biogenesis could give would be reduced to this : 



The uniform modification into which are summed up 

 during their extension throughout the whole body the 

 different transformations in the idioplasmic nuclear sub- 

 stance that are brought about in consequence of the 

 acquisition of new local characters is added to the 

 preceding phylogenetic modifications without altering 

 them, but merely reducing them to the potential state. 

 Then in the next following ontogeny, when the required 

 stage of development is attained, and this recently ac- 

 quired idioplasmic modification becomes active in its turn, 

 it induces the same general state of the body as was 

 induced in the parent as a result of the acquisition of new 

 local characters, and this general state, because of the 

 reversibility of the relation between action and reaction, 

 tends to bring about the formation of this character once 

 again. 



But one must not be deceived even by this. Even 

 supposing this to be the explanation that the biogenetic 

 hypothesis could afford for the inheritance of acquired 

 characters, it would consist rather in mere words than in 

 ideas. For, as we have said above, this supposed summing 

 up of all these different, simultaneous, local variations 

 into a single idioplasmic modification, including them all 

 and uniform for the entire organism, lacks not only any 

 basis in fact but also any possibility of conception. And 

 the following questions remain unanswered : In what 

 do these different general states of the idioplasm consist ? 

 In what way do some come to be added to the others 



