^^ 



y 



204 ORIGINAL SIN 



II 



It is now time to return to the main course of our 

 argument, and to discuss the problem of the transmis- 

 sion of our first parents' fallen state to their posterity. 

 In considering this problem we have chiefly to reckon 

 with Professor Weismann's denial of the transmission 

 of acquired characters. 



Weismann's argument^ is substantially this: Indi- 

 vidual organisms contain two kinds of cells — germ- 

 cells and somatic cells. The latter are the ones which, 

 by their multipHcation, differentiation, and growth, 

 build up the body or soma; and they alone are affected 

 by the use and non-use of organs, or become modified 

 by the characters acquired during the lifetime of the 

 individual organism. But they have no part in the 

 propagation of species, so that their acquired charac- 

 ters perish when the individual dies. The process of 

 propagation takes place wholly within the germ-cells, 

 and no variations or characters can be transmitted to 

 offspring unless they have affected these germ-cells. 

 But the germ-cells, it is maintained, are isolated from 

 the other cells of the soma or organism at large, and can- 

 not be affected by the ordinary causes which modify the 

 organism during an individual lifetime. The acquired 

 characters of the organism cannot therefore be trans- 

 mitted — at least, not unless they are of a very radical 

 nature, and such as affect the organism at its root. 



1 Already summarized in pp. 65-67, above, where references are 

 given. 



