THE GERM-PLASM THEORY 89 



cannot reproduce them, but above all because we 

 should not be able to perceive the results of a 

 successful experiment " (ii. 367). Here again, we 

 find ourselves in a region where observed fact is 

 impossible. Huxley desired us to cast our gaze 

 upon a period which no man ever saw and of which 

 no man can know anything ; Weismann tells us 

 that if there had been a man there, and if he had 

 been provided with the most complete scientific 

 armamentarium, he could not have seen what was 

 taking place. And this, he continues, " I shall be 

 able to prove convincingly without difficulty." 

 What is his proof ? Well, if one admits the exist- 

 ence of vital units living side by side in the micro- 

 cosm of the germ, it is only one step further to 

 imagine them carrying on independent existences 

 outside the germ as detached organisms. Clearly 

 then the first organisms were biophors, and, as we 

 cannot see a biophor, it is obvious that when they 

 first appeared, even if the observer had been there 

 and had been searching for them, his search must 

 have been in vain. Indeed it would be hard to 

 prove that they are not being produced all around 

 us every day at this very moment. 



It may be well to quote the actual words of the 

 writer on this point. 



" In regard to them [the biophors] alone is the 

 possibility of origin through purely chemico- 

 physical causes, without the co-operation of life 

 already existing, admissible. It is only in regard 

 to them that spontaneous generation is not incon- 

 ceivable. We must, therefore, assume that, at some 



