Objections to the Theory 117 



It is, indeed, not to be denied that Weismann's view 

 finds strong theoretical support in the usual economy of 

 nature. Why endow numberless cells and long genera- 

 tions of cells with characters which they will never need ? 

 But it must not be forgotten that such parsimony would 

 perhaps necessitate special adaptations, and that therefore 

 it might, in the end, be simpler not to make any differ- 

 ences at all between the individual cells in regard to their 

 latent characters. 



However, I should not like to go quite so far as to at- 

 tribute to every somatic cell all the latent qualities. First 

 of all, as was pointed out at the beginning of this Part, 

 it would be impossible to support such a view experiment- 

 ally, and therefore it would remain permanently sterile. 

 Then I have pointed out the non-nucleated asci, which 

 doubtless represent somatic tracks without latent hered- 

 itary units, and therefore permit the assumption of a re- 

 duction of these qualities in other tracks. Here, too, a 

 very slowly advancing differentiation and specialization 

 is, on the whole, much more probable, according to our 

 present conception of living nature, than the sharp con- 

 trast between the chosen bearers of heredity and the so- 

 matic cells equipped only with the hereditary particles 

 required for their functions, as assumed by Weismann. 



Weismann also expresses himself, on the ground of 

 botanical facts, to the effect "that he can see no theoreti- 

 cal obstacle to the germ-plasm, under certain conditions, 

 being admixed with cells of a pronounced histological dif- 

 ferentiation, or, indeed, even with all the cells of the en- 

 tire plant/' For the liverwort, serving as a,n illustration, 

 he admits this conclusion to be correct. 29 And the more 



29 Zur Annahme einer Kontimiitat des Keimplasmas. Ber. Nat- 

 urforsch. Ges. Freiburg. 1: 10. 1886. 



