1 70 An Examination of Weismannism. 



the ultimate mechanism of heredity, it is a great 

 gain to have freed his fundamental postulate of the 

 continuity of germ-plasm from the two further 

 postulates which have just been mentioned, and the 

 sole purpose of which was to provide a basis for his 

 untenable theory of evolution. 



5. In my opinion it only remains for him to 

 withdraw the last remnant of his theory of evolution 

 by cancelling his modified and even less tenable 

 views on amphimixis, in order to give us a theory of 

 heredity which is at once logically intact and bio- 

 logically probable. 



6. The theory of germ-plasm would then resemble 

 that of stirp in all points of fundamental importance, 

 save that while the latter leaves the question open as 

 to whether acquired characters are ever inherited in 

 any degree, the former would dogmatically close it, 

 chiefly on the grounds which I have considered in 

 Appendix II. It seems to me that in the present 

 state of our knowledge it is more prudent to follow 

 Galton in suspending our judgement with regard to 

 this question, until time shall have been allowed for 

 answering it by the inductive methods of observation 

 and experiment. 



7. Hence, in conclusion, we have for the present 

 only to repeat what Weismann himself has said in 

 one of the wisest of his utterances, — " The question 

 as to the inheritance of acquired characters remains, 

 whether the theory of germ-plasm be accepted or 

 rejected." 



It is now close upon twenty years that I accepted 

 the substance of this theory under the name of stirp ; 

 and since that time the question as to the inheritance 



