THE GERM-PLASM THEORY 77 



away by the writer's earnestness and thorough 

 faith in his own views, as to forget that the things 

 of which he is treating are pure creatures of his 

 imagination, which may possibly have an exist- 

 ence, but, on the other hand, quite as likely may 

 not. Now let us turn to some of the difficulties 

 which have been brought forward. Let us see how 

 Weismann answers them. During this part of our 

 examination we shall be reminded of the writer 

 who said, " Give me my one impossible situation, 

 and I will construct you a story." For Weismann 

 seems to say : " Give me my determinants, and 

 I will explain anything you can ask me." First, it 

 is inquired how galls can be accounted for, since 

 there can be no such things as gall-determinants. 

 " Of course there are not," replies Weismann, 

 but " the specific nature of the different kinds of 

 plant-cells, predetermined by their determinants, 

 is such that, through the abnormal influences 

 exercised upon them by the larvae, they are com- 

 pelled to a special reaction which results in the 

 formation of galls " (i. 385). Our writer will hear 

 of no vital phenomena in the cell or the plant, 

 but surely in the explanation given above a kind 

 of biological parallelogram of forces we are not 

 very far from something like the famous virtus 

 dormitiva. 



Then, in the second place, he is asked how he 

 accounts for the remarkable phenomena connected 

 with the shaking apart of the cells which make up 

 the eight-cell stage of the development of Amp- 

 ' Jnjpxus. Here each cell, which under ordinary 

 circumstances would have formed one-eighth of 



