42 An Examination of Weismannism. 



logical meaning of polar bodies. And as the bearing 

 of this particular theory on his more general theory 

 of heredity does not appear to me a vitally intimate 

 one. I think my subsequent examination of the main 

 theory will be simplified if I now proceed at once 

 to an examination of the subordinate one. For by 

 doing this I shall hope to show that the bearings just 

 mentioned are of much less importance than he repre- 

 sents them to be ; and. therefore, that we may hereafter 

 proceed to consider his theory of heredity without any 

 special reference to his theory of polar bodies. 



To begin with, as regards the first polar body, one 

 would like to know more clearly why it is necessary 

 that this residuum of merely " ovogenetic idio-plasm" 

 (or idio-plasm-A of the egg-cell) has to be got rid 

 of before the germ plasm can proceed to discharge 

 its physiological functions. Seeing that both these 

 (hypothetically) very different materials occur in the 

 self-same nucleus, some very delicate mechanism must 

 be needed for their separation : and it is not apparent 

 why such a mechanism should have been evolved, 

 rather than what would have been the simpler plan of 

 adapting the germ-plasm to hold its own against the 

 idio-plasm-A, even if one could see that any inter- 

 ference between these very different substances is in 

 any way probable. For my own part, at all events, 

 I cannot see why this microscopical atom of li ovo- 

 genetic idio-plasm " should not simply be left to 

 be absorbed among the millions of cells that after- 

 wards go to form the foetus. 



Again, as regards the second polar body. Weismann's 

 theory of it is framed to explain, (a) how the excess of 

 germ-plasm is got rid of in each ontogeny, and (b) why 



