Effects of Discharge or Activation 297 



adult stage preceding the acquisition of the new character. 

 Then on account of an external influence acting at a given 

 point A of this system, the specificity of the respective 

 current was changed from i to i' . In consequence of that 

 the whole circulatory system S, in order to assume a new 

 state of dynamic equilibrium, transformed itself into a 

 different system S', in such a way that at another given 

 point B, that of the central zone, the specificity of the re- 

 spective current underwent a very definite corresponding 

 variation from intensity U to i'i. If then there is now 

 present in the embryo of the young organism the same 

 circulatory system S of the parent organism, and if, on 

 account of the activation of the specific potential element 

 in question, there is produced at the same point B of this 

 system, the same variation of specificity from intensity 

 ii to i'i, it is evident and we shall see later that a few 

 facts from the inorganic world prove experimentally the 

 general principle upon which our assertion rests that 

 there must follow the same change as before of the 

 dynamic equilibrium of the general system from S to S', 

 and that, consequently, there will now be produced at 

 the point A the same specific modification as before from 

 i to i'. In this way the inheritance of acquired characters 

 finds a most complete explanation. 



Let us note parenthetically, that nuclear somatization 

 conceded, we must regard each of the substances forming 

 the different specific potential elements of any nucleus as 

 capable of gradually replacing the others by continual in- 

 crease of its mass, when the respective specific current, on 

 account of the incessant repetition always of only one and 

 the same stimulus, passes very frequently through the 

 nucleus. A nucleus thus somatized, that is to say, one 

 composed wholly of a single specific substance, would 



