yS An Examination of Weismannism. 



I do not know how he would meet it. But, as far as 

 I can see, it can be explained only in one or other of 

 two ways. Either there must be some action of the 

 spermatic element on the hitherto unripe ovum, or else 

 this element must exercise some influence on the so- 

 matic-tissues of the female, which in their turn act upon 

 the ovum l . Now, I do not deny that the first of these 

 possibilities might be reconcilable with the hypothesis 

 of an absolute continuity of germ-plasm ; for it is 

 conceivable that the life of germ-plasm is not co- 

 terminous with that of the spermatozoa which convey 

 it. and hence that, if the carriers of heredity, after the 

 disintegration of their containing spermatozoa, should 

 ever penetrate an unripe ovum, the germ-plasm thus 

 introduced might remain dormant in the ovum until the 

 latter becomes mature, and is then fertilized by another 

 sire. In this way it is conceivable that the hitherto 

 dormant germ-plasm of the previous sire might exercise 

 some influence on the progeny of a subsequent one. 

 But it seems clear that the second of the two possi- 

 bilities above named could not be thus brought within 

 the hypothesis of an absolute continuity of germ- 

 plasm. Therefore it seems that the school of Weis- 

 mann must adopt the first, to the exclusion of the 

 second. Unfortunately for them, however, there is 

 another (and clearly analogous) fact, which goes to 

 exclude the first possibility, and most definitely to 

 substantiate the second. For, in the case of plants, 

 where there can be no second progeny borne by the 



1 The possibility of any spermatozoa of the first impregnation 

 surviving to take part in the second is excluded by the fact that the 

 phenomenon occurs in mammals, and, apparently, may extend over tws 

 or three litters. 



