ii] HEREDITY 131 



somes and body-characters is as yet in its infancy ; 

 and this brief note can only sketch the lines on which 

 modern work seems to support Weismann's hypo- 

 thesis that the chromosomes are the physical basis 

 of inheritance. It will be seen that his suggestion 

 that all the chromosomes are on the whole similar 

 is not confirmed, but the evidence that chromosomes 

 do bear factors for inherited characters is consider- 

 ably stronger than when the idea was first put 

 forward. 



9—2 



