134 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



is free and independent, and disappears in its product. 

 So that Heredity is here the reappearance or restoration 

 of the lost gamete identity. 



But in Continuously Multicellular Individuals, and notably 

 in those of higher type, an enormous number of the cells 

 of the developing Individual are arrested and never become, 

 in future product, sexual cells ; and it is in the arrested 

 mass that we look for and recognise parental resemblances. 

 Yet here also we are not dealing with a true transmission, 

 but with a repetition of past reactions. For the somatic 

 cell is the " fixed species " in the evolution of the growth- 

 cycle. It represents arrested evolution on a side-path, 

 and as in each succeeding growth-cycle evolution follows 

 the same general lines, so do the same arrested somatic 

 species reappear. We regard, of course, the unarrested 

 road of development leading to the restoration of sexual 

 elements as the main road of growth-cycle evolution. 



Thus, to repeat ; it does not seem correct to speak of 

 the " transmission " of parental characters, but rather of 

 their " reappearance " in ensuing cycles. In reality there 

 is nothing " transmitted." It is the sexual element which 

 is reproduced, and the Individual characters are only re- 

 flections from the arrested stages or reactions of the process 

 of reproduction. This concisely expresses our belief. 



Variation. 



While the action of the laws of Growth results in the 

 reappearance of the parental form in the offspring, this 

 reappearance is never exact ; there is always variation, 

 and this is so whether the Individual be hermaphrodite or 

 unisexual. As it is not the general rule for hermaphrodite 

 Individuals to practise self-fertilisation, we may make the 

 broad statement that the offspring never exactly resembles 

 either the male or female parent, but inevitably exhibits 

 certain characters which are peculiarly its own. As the 

 parents are never exactly alike, this is not surprising. 



On the other hand, the offspring, while inevitably varying 

 from its parents for the reason that its development is always 

 a perfectly fresh " experiment," may present characters 

 distinct from those generally exhibited by the species to 

 which it belongs. 



