162 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



to the perpetual rearrangement or "neotaxis" of the germ- 

 plasm. 



As regards the crossing of old and stable species, it must be 

 remembered that, whereas the determinants relating to the 

 individual character may be different in every id of the germ- 

 plasm, the determinants relating to the specific characters are 

 identical in every id. Thus, when two individuals of such species 

 cross, the hemodynamic ids of the one meet the hemodynamic ids 

 of the other. It is obvious that, as all the ids are identical, the 

 reduction of the plasm can produce no neotaxis, for every re- 

 mingling will be a remingling of identical ids. The offspring of 

 such first crosses must therefore be identical with one another 

 as far as the specific determinants of the species are concerned ; 

 only secondary and individual differences can obtain among them. 

 In the crossing of individuals belonging to the same species, 

 the specific determinants of the species play a secondary role. 

 Differences in the individual characteristics do not exist merely 

 between the two parental germ-plasms, but between the different 

 ids of the germ-plasm ; whereas in the case of species the char- 

 acteristics of the two species are identical in all the ids. With 

 regard to individual characters, the different combinations of 

 ids, which are, as we have seen, the result of each successive 

 reduction, can make up in every case a different sum of forces ; 

 so that either parent can produce germ-cells containing different 

 organic arrangements, and, inter alia, either can produce in an 

 active form arrangements which were latent in the parent, but 

 which, owing to the chances of amphimixis and reduction, obtain 

 a majority in the plasm of the offspring, and are therefore no 

 longer latent.^ Or else the ids of one parent containing a specific 



* Latent characters are represented by a minority of determinants in 

 the germ -plasm which are not strong enough to exert any influence on the 

 development ; but they form a reserve which, if the chances of amphi- 

 mixis and reduction be favourable, may obtain a majority in the germ- 

 plasm of the offspring, and thereby cause the latent character to manifest 

 itself actively. 



