CHAPTER V. 



Weismannism up to date (3 893). 



Hitherto we have been considering Professor 

 Weismann's system as it stood prior to the publica- 

 tion of his most recent works on Amphimixis and The 

 Germ-plasm, in 1891 and 1893 respectively. These 

 later and highly elaborate essays present considerable 

 modifications of the system, as it stood when the 

 foregoing criticism was written. But, for reasons 

 already stated in the Preface, it appears to me 

 desirable to leave that criticism as it was originally 

 constructed, and to supply this further chapter for 

 the purpose of dealing with the large alterations of, 

 and important additions to, the theory of germ-plasm, 

 which the maturer thought of its gifted author has led 

 him to announce. 



A few general remarks may be most conveniently 

 made at the outset. 



In the first place, these recent publications present 

 the advantage over their predecessors of being sys- 

 tematic treatises, instead of more or less independent 

 papers. On this account they present a logical 

 sequence of thought, which renders the task of ex- 

 amination much less difficult than it was in the case 

 of the first volume of the Essays. 



