34 The development of Multicellulars 



and every new acquisition is passed on to 

 all the individuals into which any one is 

 manifolded. If we like to call this inheri- 

 tance, then it is inheritance of acquired 

 characters, and there is no other. And all 

 this while too there is no ground for dis- 

 tinguishing between body-plasm and germ- 

 plasm; unless the cell nucleus — ^without 

 which the cell never divides and which 

 always divides with it — were to be called 

 germ-plasm on this account. 



But now so soon as we advance to the 

 Metazoa and the Metaphyta — ^that is to the 

 multicellular animals and plants — ^we are 

 supposed, according to Weismann, to be 

 suddenly confronted with an absolute dis- 

 continuity of mortal body and immortal 

 germ. The one can no longer bequeath, 

 the other can no longer inherit. Surely in 

 such a case what we should naturally expect 



