3^ 



According to our theory there is needed for the explanation of the pro- 

 cesses of inheritance, neither any special locality such as the embryonic cells, 

 nor any special cell or plasm germ or inheritance mass or any ancestral plasm, 

 for inheritance is a "mechanical must" a necessary nnhcrsally present me- 

 chanical result of the structure of the organic substance. As soon as the 

 organic substance, like the inorganic, is considered as an atomic union which 

 retains its character and therefore its specific peculiarities, since the atoms 

 in the molecules exist in definite arrangements and fluctuation, then this sub- 

 stance presents the stage of ec|uilibrium of definite forms of motion. If one 

 cannot define the countless combinations of molecular fluctuations and can- 

 not construct the distention and other mechanical results arising from the 

 dififerent arrangement, one may yet characterize each organic structure as 

 the result of a sum of very definite combinations of molecular motions which 

 are conditioned by each other. Accordingly the cytoplasm of the pear is a 

 plasma whose dififerent micellae show in general the molecular fluctuation 

 forms of the plasmatic substances but still possess specific relations of fluct- 

 uation and arrangement which distinguish them from similarly located 

 micellae of the apple cytoplasm. Therefore, m each smallest particle in each 

 biogen of any organic individual whatever, an individual character may be 

 found which must remain constant as an expression of the sum of definite 

 forms of motion resulting from the law of inertia. 



This constancy is a mechanical necessity; — for every motion continues 

 in its existing form as long as it is not modified by another demonstration of 

 force and each substance which is the expression and bearer of the motion 

 retains this form and character until other reactions cause molecular 

 changes^ If, for example, we speak of protoplasm, we must be 

 conscious that we do not designate thereby a homogeneous substance with a 

 fixed chemical nature, but a large group of substances containing many 

 forms. The same is true for cellulose, sugar, tannic acid etc. 



The assumption of the existence of as many variations of substances as 

 there are individuals loses its strangeness as soon as we remember that we 

 see about us daily an equal number of variations of figures, — for, as a fact, 

 no one individual resembles another absolutely. If, however, each biogen is 

 a specific unit, it retains its character with the provision that no substance 

 coming from without may change its molecular grouping, no matter where 

 it is located in the plant body, nor whether it occurs in the form of cellulose 

 or as somatic or embryonic tissue. For all these substances are indeed only 

 groupings proceeding from one another. The biogens which arc utilized in 

 the formation of the embryo, that is, at the beginning of the new generation, 

 find an expression in the new individual as in the old for the form of fluctu- 

 ation which they represent. This retention of the molecular form of motion 



1 This viow of the .si)ocnfifity of each biogen in every organism has ah-eady 

 been expressed by Noll, since he states that the egg cell of a linden in its 

 totality is alread>- a linden and cannot be anything else nor become anything else. 

 Noll, Beobachtiingen und Betrachtungen liber embryonale Substanz. Sond. "Biolog. 

 Centralblatt." Vol. XXIII, l^eipzig 1003, p. 325. 



