The Inheritance of Acquired Characters 17 



A general theoretical objection to Weismanx's view 

 is that every organism is a physiological as well as a 

 morphological unity, and that cells completely insulated 

 in such a unity would be impossible. Cytologists also 

 have come to believe that there are proto})lasmic con- 

 nections between adjacent cells in practically all plant 

 tissues, and, in general, physiolog}' tends to confirm 

 this. Such suggestions voice a growing belief that the 

 body plasm can affect the germ plasm. 



The reply of the Weismannians is that even though 

 somatoplasm might affect germ plasm in this general 

 physiological way, this is a very different thing from the 

 inheritance of some definite acquired character. To be 

 inherited such a character would have to be exactly 

 redeveloped in the germ plasm, and the intlucnce referred 

 to cannot be so specific as that. This, of course, is a 

 theoretical answer, and the question can only be decided 

 by experimental work. A theoretical rejoinder to this 

 answer may be suggested. It is like the voice in a tele- 

 phone transmitter, which starts vibrations that make 

 the receiver repeat the voice. (Something more delinite 

 on this matter will be considered a little later.) Before 

 arriving at anything like a conclusion on this matter, 

 it will be necessary to consider some of the claimed cases 

 of inheritance of acquired characters. 



I. Mutilations. — Most of the evidence under this 

 head is in relation to animals. It is a matter of common 

 experience that mutilations are not inherited in man 

 and the domesticated animals. A few quotations from 

 Walter (18) suggest the situation: 



"It is fortunate that the sons of warriors do not 

 inherit their fathers' honorable scars of battle, else we 



