202 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
colour of the leaves. Off-shoots from such copper-coloured 
trees (for example, the copper beech), which have been 
propagated by cuttings in a non-sexual manner, show the 
peculiar colour and nature of the leaves which distinguished 
the parental individual, while others reared from seeds of 
such a copper-coloured tree return to the green-coloured 
condition of leaf. 
This difference in inheritance will seem very natural when 
we consider that the material connection between the pro- 
ducing and produced individuals is much closer and lasts 
much longer in non-sexual than in sexual propagation. The 
special tendency of the molecular motion of life can there- 
fore fix itself much longer and more thoroughly in the filial 
organism, and be more strictly transmitted by non-sexual 
than by sexual propagation. All these phenomena, con- 
sidered in connection, clearly prove that the transmission of 
bodily and mental peculiarities is a purely material and 
mechanical process. By propagation a greater or lesser 
quantity of albuminous particles, and together with them the 
individual form of motion inherent in these molecules of 
protoplasm, are transmitted from the parental organism to 
the offspring. As this form of motion remains continuous, 
the more delicate peculiarities inherent in the parental 
organism must sooner or later reappear in the filial 
organism. 
