Appendix I, 183 



— that all the cellular tissues of a multicellular organism, 

 like the single cell of a unicellular organism, are per se 

 endowed with the vital property of self-multiplication; and 

 that whether this property finds its expression in normal 

 growth, in abnormal increments of growth (such as tumours), 

 in processes of repair, in the various forms of a-sexual 

 reproduction, or in the more specialized form of sexual 

 fertilization, there is everywhere an exhibition of one and 

 the same capacity. Now, without going further than this 

 contrast between the fundamental principles of the two 

 theories, does it not become evident that the difficulty of 

 conceiving a transition of A into A' is at any rate no 

 greater than that of conceiving a transition of A into B, 

 where A is in both cases the formative substance, A 7 this 

 same substance in another stage of evolution (i.e., elaborated 

 for the performance of some special function, but never 

 so as to lose its original function A), while B is a substance 

 which differs from A almost as much as a woven texture 

 differs from the hands that weave it? 



Once more, in all his arguments which are directed to 

 prove the continuity of germ-plasm, Weismann nowhere 

 seems to perceive the necessity of arguing the correlative 

 hypothesis — viz., that of the discontinuity of somato-plasm. 

 Yet, as Professor Vines has remarked, it is as incumbent 

 on him to disprove any possible continuity on the part of 

 somato-plasm, as it is to prove a perpetual continuity on 

 the part of germ-plasm. And here I am disposed to go 

 further than Professor Vines has gone ; for it appears to me 

 even more incumbent on Weismann to argue a discontinuity 

 on the part of somato-plasm, than it is on him to argue 

 a continuity on the part of germ-plasm. 



This must be immediately apparent if we remember that, 

 unless the discontinuity of somato-plasm be assumed, the 

 theory of the continuity of germ-plasm in telluric time (as 

 distinguished from eternity) becomes identical in form with 



