AN 



EXAMINATION OF WEISMANNISM. 



CHAPTER I. 



Statement of Weismann's System 

 up to the Year 1886 1 . 



Seeing that Professor Weismann's theory of 

 heredity, besides being somewhat elaborate in itself, is 

 presented in a series of disconnected essays, originally 

 published at different times, it is a matter of no small 

 difficulty to gather from the present collection of 

 them a complete view of the system as a whole. 

 Therefore I propose to give a brief sketch of his 

 several cognate theories, arranged in a manner 

 calculated to show their logical connexion one with 

 another. And, in order also to show the relation in 

 which his resulting theory of heredity stands to what 

 has hitherto been the more usual way of regarding 

 the facts, I will begin by furnishing a similarly con- 

 densed account of Mr. Darwin's theory upon the 

 subject. It will be observed that these two theories 

 constitute the logical extremes of explanatory thought ; 

 and therefore it may be said, in a general way, that 



1 Considerable portions of this chapter have already appeared as an 

 article in the Contemporary Review for May, 1890. My thanks are due 

 to the editor for kindly allowing me to reproduce them here. 



B 



