102 Hypothesis of Structure of Germ Substance 
entire mass or for the restoration of the masses of any of 
its specific elements, as at the time when these latter were 
being used up in proportion as they became activated. 
And perhaps this explains also why the sex cells, which 
according to our hypothesis form only the container for 
the germinal substance given off by the central zone, 
usually become “ripe” only at the end of development. 
When the continuous activation of new specific po- 
tential elements ceases, the disturbing influences exercised 
by the central zone upon the dynamic equilibrium of each 
ontogenetic stage will cease also. And thus the organism 
arrives at the final equilibrium of the adult condition. 
But now the functional stimulus in the widest sense of the 
term can come into play, with the innumerable variations 
possible for it, as new causes of perturbation. 
So just as formerly the perturbing influence of the 
central zone upset the just formed equilibrium, and there- 
by provoked a transition to the next ontogenetic stage, 
so now each persisting alteration of the functional stimu- 
lus disturbs the dynamic equilibrium of the adult condi- 
tion and thereby causes also a different distribution of the 
general nervous energy. Through each cell of the entire 
organism, or of definite portions of the organism, there 
will consequently flow a nervous current specifically dif- 
ferent from that present before, and also specifically dif- 
ferent from one cell to another. 
There is formed and deposited therefore in the nu- 
cleus of each of these cells a particular specific potential 
element, which will add itself to the element or elements 
already present. But all the elements, the new as well as 
the old, which are deposited in the somatic nuclei will be 
lost with the death of the individual; and only those will 
be preserved from annihilation, which have been depos- 
