30 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LIFE 



To show the dangers of too hasty analysis, the best example 

 is found in two very celebrated theories which still encumber 

 the field of biology and which, owing to errors of method, 

 still weigh heavily on the student's shoulders. These two 

 theories render quite valueless for purposes of research 

 those two phenomena which best inform us of life. I mean, 

 first, heredity, and, secondly, the fabrication of specific 

 antitoxic serums. 



The scholars responsible for such errors of method have, 

 on the other hand and very justly, a very great scientific 

 authority ; and this has rendered their theories even more 

 fatal. The first theory relates to heredity and is due to 

 Darwin and Weismann : the second relates to antitoxic 

 serums and is due to Ehrlich. In both cases the error of 

 method is the same ; it consists in representing by a name 

 things which do not exist. 



The problem of heredity, which we have to study later on, 

 may be stated as follows : How is it that a herring's egg, 

 developing amid the hazards of the sea, gives birth to a 

 herring ? Evidently there is something in it which dis- 

 tinguishes it from the egg of a sea-urchin, since the two 

 eggs developing under similar conditions give birth to 

 such dissimilar animals. It is this unknown something 

 which we may call the specific heredity of the herring's egg. 



Darwin, when he wished to explain the mysterious nature 

 of such heredity, most likely reasoned as follows : If I had 

 to reproduce a herring myself, I should need a complete 

 description of all its characters ; in the same way the egg 

 must possess, if not a description, at least a representation 

 of all the characters which are necessary to constitute the 

 adult herring that is to come out of it. 



Such reasoning is not wanting in logic ; but we must come 

 to an understanding about the word character. What we 



