240 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART iv 



reach specialised reproductive cells. The germ cells 

 seem to be derived, if only at this early stage in de- 

 velopment, from somatic cells, and continuity with 

 the past seems to be disproved in favour of reci- 

 procity in the present. At this point, therefore, 

 Weismann and others take a deeper plunge into sub- 

 microscopic minuteness and unverifiable theory. 

 They cannot prove continuity of germ cells, but noth- 

 ing can hinder their asserting continuity of germ 

 plasm or the like, i.e. continuity of the invisible sub- 

 stance, believed to form part of the contents of [re- 

 productive] cell nuclei, and to be the vehicle of 

 hereditary qualities. 1 On this view of things we 

 must alter our parable. The owl comes from the 

 egg true ; but the egg (the microscopic living em- 

 bryonic ovum) never came from the owl never ; 

 the owl came from the egg, and the egg came from 

 the egg. The living hereditary substance, the as- 

 sumed carrier of the qualities of heredity, is called by 

 Galton " Stirp." Weismann calls it " Germ plasm," 

 subsequently " Idioplasm," and later on introduces 

 further refinements and subdivision. If we may take 

 an ecclesiastical analogy, the ordinary doctrine of 

 organic reciprocity corresponds to the Protestant doc- 

 trine of the Church. The ministry are specialised 

 organs of the Church, kindred to all other parts of 

 the living Church tissue, capable, if the need arises, 

 of being replaced by any other part without serious 

 damage to the true life of the Church. On the other 

 hand, " continuity of the germ plasm " corresponds 



1 The phrase (in the allied form, "continuity of the germ proto- 

 plasm ") is not of Weismann's coinage, but goes back to a previous 

 writer, Jaeger. 



