APPENDIX C 20S 



They only arise much later in the very remote cell-descendants 

 of the germ. 



Yet, again, it must be remembered that it is not asserted by 

 any one that acquired modifications never influence the germs. 

 It is only asserted that there is absolutely no evidence that 

 changes in the soma influence germ-cells in such a particular 

 and unlikely direction that the modifications of the parent are 

 transmuted through heredity into similar variations in the child. 

 For instance, it is not asserted that changes in the brain may 

 not influence the germ in any one of a million or a billion 

 possible directions ; it is only asserted that they do not — except 

 perhaps as a coincidence so rare that no instance of it has been 

 found — influence the germ in the particular direction which is 

 meant when the transmission of an acquired character is main- 

 tained. 



Lastly, it must be remembered that, when some external 

 agency finds entrance into the body and acts directly on the 

 germ, it is not asserted by any one that the germ is incapable 

 of being modified by it. Thus, it is not asserted that alcohol 

 or the toxins of disease, when present in the parent's blood, do 

 not influence the germ. It is possible that they do. It is only 

 asserted that external agencies do not — except, again, as a co- 

 incidence so rare that no instance is known — so influence the 

 germs that the offspring arising from them have inborn the 

 modifications which the agency caused in the parent. For in- 

 stance, experience in some diseases gives rise in a man to 

 acquired immunity, i.e. a great increase of resisting power ; 

 but it is denied that his germs are so affected by the toxins 

 in his blood that his children, as a consequence, develop a 

 resisting power greater than they would otherwise have had. 

 It would be very extraordinary if they did. Such a variation 

 in the child would imply a very delicate and peculiar alteration 

 of the germ, and there is no reason known why that particular 

 alteration should arise, rather than any one of a million other 

 possible alterations — say, a diminished liver or an enlarged toe, 

 or a taste for blue china or for chocolate. It will be observed 



