Heredity, Variation and Genius 51 



gemmules emanating from all cells of the body into 

 the germ-cell which was thus impregnated po- 

 tentially with every peculiarity of the parent. An 

 actual transference of an extremely minute matter 

 was deemed necessary to account for the here- 

 ditary transmission. But is it not conceivable that 

 the informing work may be done without any 

 such material transference ? By what marvellously 

 swift and subtile motion does a disagreeable idea 

 or still more a painful emotion instantly traverse 

 the whole body and poison every function of it, 

 bodily as well as mental ? The exquisitely deli- 

 cate vital interaction between every cell of a 

 complex organism whereby " every part calls the 

 furthest brother " may well be something more 

 subtile than any known material agency ; an 

 instant transmission of finest rhythmical pulses 

 perhaps rather than a labouring voyage of gem- 

 mules, unless perchance minute gemmules be 

 now translateable into more subtile ions. It is 

 possible at all events — and growing knowledge 

 of the subtilities of Nature does not belie the 

 supposition — that every living cell radiates energy 

 in minute pulsations spreading through the con- 

 tinuous or contiguous plasm of the whole organism 

 of which it is a vital part, and that an innumerable 

 multitude of such informing energies converge on 

 the germ-cells in which the organism is potentially 

 represented.* In that case acquired pecularities 



* If we think away the gross material cell-matter with its 

 accompanying notion of comparative inertia, and instead con- 



