Heredity, Variation and Genius 87 



production ; and that when all the constituent 

 units of a particular organism have been thus 

 separately treated the disintegrated organic unity 

 somehow survives — at any rate in spirit — as a 

 whole and reproduces its type. What then has 

 become of the very principle of its being, the 

 synthetic force of its unity, the substantia una, so 

 to speak, of which its divested characters were 

 the distinguishing attributes ? Swarms of the 

 unit-characters of the two conjugating sexes are 

 supposed to pour separately in equal numbers 

 into the reproductive cell, only half of them 

 to be used for the production of the destined 

 organism ; intermingling there in fluctuating agita- 

 tions they finally, by a suitable play of elective 

 affinities, sort out and part off the proper number 

 and characters to combine for its formation. Do 

 the constituent elements always then really join 

 together, well or ill, so far only as to be capable 

 of subsequent separation ? Or do they ever blend 

 somehow in an organic composition which absorbs 

 and transforms their individuality, transmitting 

 them perchance into something more rich and 

 rare ? 



Startling it certainly is to think that the human 

 organism can be a mere aggregation of an innu- 

 merable multitude of unit-characters which are 

 transmitted independently in heredity and may 

 be separately treated, seeing that every part of it 

 is physiologically in vital relationship with every 

 other part, and that its specific life is the vital 



