176 An Examination of Weismannism. 



over those which are more remote." On the contrary, I 

 do not see that mere proximity of one species of cell to 

 another species within the same organism need have any- 

 thing to do with the matter — still less that " we must 

 suspend all physical and physiological conceptions/' if we 

 demur to the statement that it ''obviously must/' As for 

 "physical conceptions," how many thousands of cases might 

 not be pointed to among chemical and mechanical pro- 

 cesses where contact or proximity are conditions of com- 

 paratively little importance ? And as for " physiological 

 conceptions,'' do we find that any part of the organism is 

 affected by its distance, say. from the liver and kidneys, 

 for getting rid of its effete products ? Is it not rather the 

 case that every gland in the body is wholly unaffected by 

 its distance from any part of the body, in regard to its 

 function of draining off the particular substances with which 

 it is concerned? Why then should the reproductive gland 

 constitute a conspicuous exception? Or how do we sus- 

 pend all physiological conceptions, if we suppose that this 

 gland resembles every other gland in being specialized to 

 secrete a particular kind of " molecule," which, because thus 

 specially selected, may be said to have for that gland a 

 special " affinity " ? If there are such things as gemmules, 

 I do not see any violation of physiological analogies — still 

 less an "entirely gratuitous assumption" — in supposing 

 that they can be filtered out from all parts of the body by 

 the sexual glands, and there aggregated as a special product 

 to be discharged in the form of sexual elements \ 



1 If there are such things as gemmules, it appears to me to follow 

 that the only physiological distinction between the reproductive glands 

 and glands in general is, that the former discharge their products in the 

 form of living cells. Even here, however, there appears to be one 

 analogous case in those salivary glands which discharge the so-called 

 salivary corpuscles — i. e., nucleated cells, undergoing amoeboid changes 

 of form, and exhibiting the movements of living protoplasm in their 

 interior. 



