Effects of Environment 341 



nothing in this which necessitates a determinant or control 

 of the future form ; no piece of specialized protoplasm which 

 foreshadows or compels a structure like that which l^efore 

 accompanied it, with the alternative of not developing. If 

 that were so the development would be independent of 

 environment except for the preservation of life and presen- 

 tation of nutrition. This condition, when reached by act- 

 ually developing forms of offspring, such as the newly 

 hatched bird, and the rooting plant cutting, can be perfected 

 only in one way foreordained. These have old characters, 

 many times reaffirmed, and it is safe for the creature to com- 

 mit itself to them, with little or no doubt as to their continu- 

 ing reliability, and they have therefore relative permanency. 

 But even this is only relative to environment. And the 

 relation is very dependent in the newest and latest heredity 

 acquirements. Protoplasm here is not committed to any 

 form or habit or course of development except by the law 

 that under certain conditions which occurred once, and are 

 now recurring, it will do again what it did before ; because 

 it is impossible for it to do otherwise. It is subject now, 

 as then, to certain laws, before which its previous perform- 

 ance, and its "soon-to-be" performance, are as if they 

 were coincident. The only thing which can appear as a 

 determinant, and compel a repetition of the former effect, 

 is the repetition of the former cause, which is the similar 

 environment ; and the only thing which normally makes the 

 sequence of cause and effect take a different course, is a 

 difference of causal environment. The protoplasmic germ 

 is steadfast only in responsiveness, not in its one response. 

 If a different environment should present itself and if the 



