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CHAPTER IX. 
LAWS OF TRANSMISSION BY INHERITANCE. 
ADAPTATION AND NUTRITION. 
Distinction between Conservative and Progressive Transmission by Inherit- 
ance.—Laws of Conservative Transmission: Transmission of Inherited 
Characters.—Uninterrupted or Continuous Transmission.—Interrupted 
or Latent Transmission.—Alternation of Generations.—Relapse.— 
Degeneracy.—_Sexual Transmission.—Secondary Sexual Characters.— 
Mixed or Amphigonous Transmission.—Hybrids.—Abridged or Simpli- 
fied Transmission.—Laws of Progressive Inheritance: Transmission of 
Acquired Characters.—Adapted or Acquired Transmission.—Fixed or 
Established Transmission—Homochronous Transmission (Identity in 
Epoch).—Homotopic Transmission (Identity in Part).—Adaptation and 
Mutability Connection between Adaptation and Nutrition.—Distinc- 
tion between Indirect and Direct Adaptation. 
In the last chapter we considered Transmission by. Inherit- 
ance, one of the two universal vital activities of organisms, 
Adaptation and Inheritance, which by their interaction 
produce the different species of organisms, and we have 
endeavoured to trace this very mysterious vital activity to 
a more general physiological function of organisms, namely, 
to Propagation. This latter in its turn, like other vital 
phenomena of animals and plants, depends on physical and 
chemical relations. It is true they appear at times ex- 
ceedingly complicated, but can nevertheless in reality be 
traced to simple mechanical causes—that is, to the relations 
