332 BIOLOGY 



by growth but not changing in nature. Thus this substance 

 remains as germ plasm, gp. The other bit of the original germ 

 plasm, however, soon begins to develop into a new individual, 

 and in distinction from the other germ plasm is called soma- 

 plasm (Gr. soma = body + plasma = substance), sp. With 

 the development of the egg the dormant power, which this 

 somaplasm possesses, begins to show itself in an active form. 

 As a result there appears a new individual; the second gen- 

 eration (Fig. 139, 5) arises from this somaplasm. The second 

 generation, in other words, unfolds the characters which lie 

 dormant in the bit of germ plasm from which it was derived. 

 As this individual develops, the other part of the original egg, 

 wiiich remains as modified germ plasm, finds lodgment within 

 the body of the new individual, and thus, when the somaplasm 

 has developed into an adult, that adult contains, stored away 

 somewhere in its body, a bit of this dormant germ plasm of 

 the original egg. Since this germ plasm has not changed its 

 nature, but has only increased in amount, its nature is of course 

 exactly the same as that of the parent germ plasm. 



When later the second generation produces eggs, some of 

 this germ plasm, which has been stored away in the body of 

 the second generation, passes into each of the eggs; Fig. 139, 4. 

 If we admit that the germ plasm has certain dormant qualities, 

 capable of developing into an adult, it will of course follow 

 that all of the individuals produced from bits of this germ plasm 

 wJ 1 ! be alike. It is thus inevitable that the third generation 

 should be exactly like the second, since both the third and 

 the second generations have developed from two different 

 parts of the same germ plasm. As long as the process con- 

 tinues, it is evident that successive generations will be alike. 

 Part of the germ plasm at each reproduction is handed on 

 unchanged to the next generation; it is retained by that gen- 

 eration through its life, and then handed on again to the next 

 generation. Successive generations thus carry a continuous germ 

 -plasm. The race is the result of the continuous germ plasm; 



