68 An Examination of Weismannism. 



external stimuli can be transmitted to the germ-cells, 

 and will re-develop in the next generation at the same 

 time as that at which they arose in the parent, and in 

 the same part of tJie organism!' But it is evident that 

 if the theory of germ-plasm is undermined by the 

 concession made in the passage thus previously 

 quoted, in the passage last quoted a match is put 

 to the fuse. It does not signify whether the particular 

 case of the butterflies in question will ever admit of 

 any other explanation more in accordance with the 

 theory of germ-plasm : the point is that in no case 

 can this theory entertain the possibility of causes 

 other than admixtures of germ-plasm in sexual 

 unions producing hereditary changes, (A) of any 

 kind, (B) still less of a specialized kind, and (C) least 

 of all of a representative kind. For the distinguishing 

 essence of this theory is, that germ-plasm must always 

 have moved, so to speak, in a closed orbit of its own : 

 its " sphere " must have been perpetually distinct 

 from those of whatever other " plasms " there may 

 be in the constellations of living things. So that, in 

 such passages as those just quoted, Weismann is not 

 only destroying the very foundations of his general 

 theory of evolution, but at the same time he is 

 identifying his more special theory of heredity with 

 those which had been already published by his 

 predecessors, and more particularly by Galton. 

 Now, it is not Galton's theory that we are con- 

 sidering ; and therefore we must hereafter ignore 

 those fundamental admissions, whereby Weismann 

 every now and again appears ready to relinquish all 

 that is most distinctive of, or original in, his own 

 elaborate system of theories. 



