224 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



mother must penetrate to the ovum, must make its way 

 through all the particles, without affecting them, and 

 must influence precisely that particle which will form the 

 same organ in any child that may develop from the 

 ovum. But as the particles have quite a different form 

 from the organ in question, the stimulus, when it has 

 reached its object, must suddenly transform itself in a 

 mysterious fashion, much as electricity is converted into 

 sound in the telephone. 



Let us take the case of a woman strengthening the 

 muscles of her arm by bending and stretching it. Even if 

 this stimulus penetrates as far as the ovum, there is no 

 arm there for it to strengthen in the same way, there 

 is merely a minute point that will form the muscle later 

 on, but at the time has nothing muscular about it. The 

 stimulus must, therefore, transform itself in order to 

 influence this point so as to produce a stronger arm 

 subsequently than it was originally calculated to do. 



By what means, moreover, will such a stimulus be 

 conveyed ? By the nerves ? By the blood ? These 

 can at the most only convey a fuller or thinner supply 

 of nourishment to the ovum. How, then, can they be 

 the means of influencing just one particle, and that in 

 a qualitative sense? When a woman, for instance, 

 injures her eyes by too much sewing, the most that can 

 be done is for the particle which will form the eye of 

 her child to receive a worse supply of nourishment. 

 But why should that make the child's eye short-sighted, 

 instead of smaller ? 



There are other hypotheses as to the conveyance of 

 the stimuli that affect the body to the ovum, but they 



