72 Natural Salvation. 



serf of death. We cannot resist the conviction that ulti- 

 mately, at least, the germ-plasm exists or will exist for 

 the good of the individual, not the individual for the 

 germ-plasm; that the brain group of cells is of greater 

 consequence than .the generative group. But again we 

 admit that it is rash to say that anything exists for any 

 purpose whatever. Purpose, conscious purpose, does not 

 come in until there is brain. There is apparently no pur- 

 pose in lower nature, or if a purpose it appears to be an 

 unconscious one. 



According to the Weismann hypothesis, the reproduc- 

 .tive cells give rise to ofifspring by virtue of the permuta- 

 tions and combinations of their own constituent biophors ; 

 the somatic cells do not contribute to the germ-plasm 

 either from their substance, nor otherwise. The soma, 

 indeed, grows from germinal matter in the reproductive 

 cells, but exerts little or no influence upon that tract. 

 The germ-plasm lives apart and to itself, and is sufficient 

 in itself for all which we know as heredity, unaffected by 

 the life or culture of the soma. 



But when we consider the intimate relation in which 

 the reproductive organs stand to the whole organism, 

 when we contemplate the close nervous connection and 

 sentient sympathy between this group of cells and the 

 brain, when we consider the constant streams of electrons 

 which are poured to these cells from the brain and other 

 organs of the soma, when we picture the steady circulation 



