294 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



Maternal Inheritance 



On the other hand there are some characters 

 which are not inherited in the typical Men- 

 delian manner. Among these are the polarity, 

 symmetry and pattern of the egg and of the 

 adult animal which, is derived from it (see p. 

 174). These characters are of such a general 

 sort that they may not be recognized as phe- 

 nomena of inheritance at all, and yet they form 

 the background and framework for all the 

 other characters. They do not come equally 

 from the egg and sperm, and they do not 

 undergo segregation in the formation of the 

 gametes, but are apparently derived from the 

 egg C3 T toplasm. Among characters of this sort 

 are the normal and inverse symmetry of snails, 

 and of many other animals, including man, 

 which were referred to on pages 176-185. Such 

 characters are undoubtedly inherited, though 

 they differ from other characters not only in 

 the fact that they are transmitted through the 

 egg only, but also because they are of the same 

 kind in the egg and in the developed organism ; 

 they are in a measure preformed in the egg; 

 thev are differentiated characters carried over 



