54 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



salamanders affected also the germ plasma ; and his 

 criticism would be difficult to refute. Indeed, it is 

 doubtful if there be a single example of supposedly 

 somatic inheritance which cannot be equally well 

 explained on the ground of Weismann's hypothesis. 

 The great strength of Weismann's position is 

 illustrated by the well-known conditions that exist 

 in a hive of bees. The queen in such a community 

 is merely a mechanism for reproduction, since she 

 is excluded from all experiences connected with the 

 active struggle for existence. This part of life falls 

 on the workers, who house, nourish, and protect 

 the queen and incidentally make just those experi- 

 ences which should fit them more and more efficiently 

 for their life work. But these workers are quite 

 sterile, and so have no chance to transmit any experi- 

 ence or habit they may have acquired. The queen 

 represents the germ plasma of Weismann; the 

 workers stand for the body or somatic cells. Any 

 improvement in the race of bees must come from 

 variations in the queen bees and the drones, as it is 

 quite clear that the experiences of the workers can- 

 not possibly be inherited. It cannot be gainsaid 

 that the force of the Weismann hypothesis lies in 

 its ingenious explanation of heredity, by which 

 a bit of germ plasma is, as it were, laid aside and 

 held in trust to make the germ cells for the new 

 generation. In an equally important relation, how- 

 ever, the hypothesis is less satisfactory. It fails, 

 I think, to bring the process of individual develop- 



