120 An Examination of JVeismannism. 



able to satisfy us upon this matter, or fully to demon- 

 strate his basal proposition touching the perpetual 

 continuity of germ-plasm, there would still be a far cry 

 between accepting this sufficiently simple proposition 

 and supposing that there is any adequate reason for 

 entertaining so complex a scheme of the structure of 

 germ-plasm. No doubt Weismann himself would be 

 quite ready to admit, that from his basal proposition 

 of the continuity of germ-plasm it is logically possible 

 to construct many other designs of the architecture of 

 germ-plasm, besides the one which he has so beautifully 

 drawn. And although most of such alternative designs 

 would doubtless embody some one or other of the 

 features which are presented by his own, no one could 

 say which features common to any two of the designs 

 represent the facts. For in the case of all alike 

 there would be a necessary absence of verification : 

 the architects would all and equally have to ac- 

 knowledge that their imposing pictures of •"the palace 

 of truth '" were but imaginary. Such, in my opinion. 

 has been the case with all theories of the ultimate 

 mechanism of heredity hitherto published ; but the 

 difference between them and Weismann's theory in 

 this respect is. that while most of the others have not 

 gone into speculative details further than was necessary 

 as a means of substantiating their basal postulates, 

 Weismann's. as now developed in The Germ-plasm, is 

 mainly concerned with such speculative details as an 

 end. or object per se. 



But, it may be replied, by thus constructing an 

 ideal mechanism of heredity Weismann is greatly 

 strengthening his fundamental postulate of the con- 

 tinuity of germ-plasm, because he shows how all the 



