Delage 263 



ductive cells as the only cells endowed with unsomatized 

 memory, and consequently as the only ones which would 

 be likewise capable of preserving more or less com- 

 pletely the memory of past generations. Nevertheless 

 he should in our opinion have limited this equalization 

 with the reproductive cells to those nerve cells which 

 are least differentiated. 



Delage 



According to Delage, "The egg is like a star thrown 

 out by an initial force into the midst of a system of 

 stars in movement. Its trajectory will be influenced and 

 determined by all the stars whose sphere of action it 

 traverses, but nevertheless, if anything had been altered 

 in its mass or in its initial movement, it \vould not have 

 been what it is. It is not dependent on the system alone 

 nor is it at any point independent of it. Every other 

 similar mass thrown out at the same point, with the 

 same force in the same direction will reproduce a tra- 

 jectory identical with its own; but every difference even 

 the most minute, in any one of these three factors will 

 be able to induce considerable differences in the form 

 of this curve." 197 



This comparison leaves the repetition of phylogeny 

 by ontogeny and the inheritance of acquired characters 

 out of consideration. 



The inheritance of acquired characters is nevertheless 

 accepted in part at least by Delage, who explains it thus : 

 "When a new chemical compound introduced into the 

 organism produces different effects at different points, 

 that is undoubtedly due to this, that it finds at each 



i 97 Delage: L'heredite etc. P. 802803. 



