288 Theories Treating of Inheritance 



single definite point of the organism, which is always the 

 same, both when the parent soma exerts its influence upon 

 the germ substance which it contains, and also when the 

 latter exerts upon the new organism its own determina- 

 tive ontogenetic influence. 



It is therefore our task now to investigate in the 

 following chapter whether the centroepigenetic hypothesis 

 already set forth above really satisfies all these conditions 

 and is consequently capable of really affording the ade- 

 quate explanation for the inheritance of acquired 

 characters, which we seek. 



