CHAPTER VI 



DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS 



THE NATURE OF DOMINANCE 



It has been assumed thus far that dominance depends 

 on a transmitted change, or excitation, rather than on 

 the transportation of substance, and it now becomes 

 necessary to consider what basis there is for this con- 

 clusion. As already pointed out (pp. 26, 27), some 

 sort of organization must be present in order that trans- 

 portative or chemical correlation may occur in a definite 

 and constant manner. If different regions of the body 

 produce specifically different substances they must be 

 specifically different, and if these substances act on 

 certain other parts in a definite specific way those parts 

 must possess a certain constitution. The data of 

 experimental reproduction discussed in earlier chapters 

 show that new individuals arise from parts of old indi- 

 viduals which either cannot possibly possess the ^'organi- 

 zation" of a complete individual or must possess an 

 indefinite number of such organizations. The latter 

 alternative leads to a conception of the Weismannian 

 sort, and I have tried to indicate how unsatisfactory 

 such conceptions are (pp. 22, 23). 



If, on the other hand, the individual is primarily 

 a metaboHc gradient in a specific protoplasm, the only 

 primary difference between the dominant and other 

 levels of the gradient is a difference of metabolic rate. 

 At this time the products of metabolism at different 



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