VARIATION AND HEREDITY 115 



of the original fertilized ovum. Thus the 



nf |!IP {TPrm.^^ 



o f t>i^ '-hiH In 



a new sense the child is "a chip of the old 

 block." The clarifying and corroboration of 

 this doctrine flf fferrpinal continuity has 



of thf* 



posi^-Darwinian, biology. It enables us to 

 understand why like tends to beget like; 

 and it also suggests, what is hardly less im- 

 portant, that the new departures or varia- 

 tions., which we have spoken of as individual, 

 are really expressions of the changeful vitality 

 qf^ theimdymg germ-plasm. AsBergson 

 puts it: "Life is like a current passing from 

 germ to germ through the medium of a 

 developed organism. . . . The essential thing 

 is the continuous progress indefinitely pur- 

 sued, an invisible progress, on which each 



organism rides during the short 1 



of time P ^ n 



ORGANIC CHANGES ANALYZED. Great 

 progress has been made in recent years in 

 studying the individual peculiarities of plants 



i rpnstprino 1 



* r} ft f li pjr f r^qn ^n ^y The collection and 

 analysis of these "biometric" data are of 

 fundamental importance, for the Darwinian 

 method of interpretation is like that of 

 Lyell, throwing the light of the present on 



