Consideration of Weismann's Arguments 189 



Even an imperfect answer to this question would be 

 satisfactory." 149 



This argument which Weismann considered as the 

 strongest, without indeed saying so definitely but allow- 

 ing it to be seen, is in reality the feeblest of all. Even 

 admitting that the mechanism of transmission may be 

 at present quite inconceivable, that is no reason for believ- 

 ing that it does not exist, since the number of phenomena 

 and even of natural laws which we must regard as cer- 

 tainly established, even though we cannot so far explain 

 them in any way is, one can well say, infinite. It recalls 

 the former objection to Newton's theory that it is incon- 

 ceivable how the heavenly bodies could mutually attract 

 one another at such a distance, and like this it is of no 

 logical value. Apart from this it can have only one 

 very important practical consequence, (and it has had 

 this effect and as a matter of fact is still producing it), 

 i. e. of bringing the reality of this inheritance into ques- 

 tion with very many investigators and stimulating them 

 therefore to a zealous search for a conclusive experiment 

 which should once for all establish or exclude it. 



In any case it is interesting to note that Nussbaum 

 whose theory of the continuity of the germ cells sug- 

 gested to Weismann his fundamental conception of the 

 continuity of the germ plasm, is opposed to him in that 

 he dees not exclude the possibility of the transmission 

 of acquired characters. For immediately after the expo- 

 sition of his theory he states "since seeds and eggs are 

 stored up in the parent organism, they are therefore 

 subjected to the action of conditions which bring about 



149 Warwin : The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domes- 

 tication, H. P. 367. 



