1 882.] Organic Physics. 659 



apt to lose their vitality and become nutriment for more vigorous 

 leucocytes, or for the body tissues. 



But many imperfectly developed leucocytes may be excreted 

 by the reproductive glands and pass into the ovaries or the testes. 

 Here a new struggle for existence arises, in which the best devel- 

 oped germs are undoubtedly favored, but in which chance cir- 

 cumstances may give an imperfectly developed one an advantage 

 in the struggle. Where the lack of normality is slight, the 

 chances for development are nearly equal. Where it is great, 

 only abnormal conditions in the reproductive organs can give the 

 abnormal germ the advantage ; consequently the production of a 

 considerable anomaly is of rare occurrence. 



It is probable that cases of reversion to ancestral types are in- 

 stances of germinal deficiency. The embryo, in its development, 

 seems to pass through phases resembling every ancestral type of 

 the species, and a partial deficiency of molecular organization in 

 the germ may limit the development of some organ or tissue 

 at the point reached by a more or less remote ancestor. Fre- 

 quently there are reproduced characteristics of an ancestor a few 

 generations removed. Occasionally there may be of a very re- 

 mote ancestor. The sexual union of a normal with a deficient 

 germ cannot yield a normal offspring, since the opposite polari- 

 ties necessary to normal development are only partially present. 

 For this reason every anomaly crosses the lateral line of the 

 body, since the molecules of neither sexual side can develop 

 without aid from those of the other. 



. As for the anomaly of displacement of organs, its cause is not 

 apparent. The mode of arrangement of the germinal molecules 

 controls the direction of their development, and the normal ar- 

 rangement is forcibly produced through the action of the special 

 polarities of these molecules. Yet perhaps there is some slight 

 possibility of variation in the position of the molecules in the 

 germ. If so, an exceedingly slight molecular displacement might 

 produce a strongly marked organic displacement in the developed 



The third class of anomalies, that of duplication, can also be 

 m et by a conjectural explanation. It may arise from duplication 

 of leucocytes in the glands ; two leucocytes coming from the 

 same region of the body, and passing through the same lym- 

 phatic gland, may possibly combine, and thus yield a doubly 



