Heredity, Variation and Genius 35 



housed and nourished for a time in a mortal 

 body but not otherwise physiologically related to 

 it, and that of the noninheritance of acquired 

 characters — are largely used as mutual buttresses. 

 To the enquiry why acquired characters may not 

 be inherited the prompt answer is because that 

 would be contrary to the sacred truth that the 

 germ-plasm lives a secluded life aloof in the 

 body ; and to the enquiry why the germ- plasm 

 may not be affected by the sundry and manifold 

 changes of a mortal life the equally prompt 

 answer is because that would be contrary to the 

 truth that acquired characters are not transmis- 

 sible. All which would be excellent argument 

 were either theory satisfactorily proved but may 

 fail fully to convince so long as neither yet rests 

 on a solid basis of proof. The bacterium which 

 acquires increased virulence by transmission 

 through another creature than that from which 

 it is transferred, thus bequeathing capital made 

 out of its new environment, violates the law of 

 non-transmission of acquisition in fearless fashion. 

 Thus far, too, the prolonged experiments and 

 careful observations of De Vries on plant-life 

 seem to disclose other instances of the breach of 

 that supposed law, for they favour rather than 

 disfavour the theory of such inheritance. In the 

 end the question can only be answered positively 

 by the exact observations and experimental re- 

 searches of competent workers mutually and 

 methodically co-operating in right directions of 



