88 J. B. CLELAND. 
capacity cannot manifest itself, because other factors in- 
hibit it in the interests of the organism as a whole. The 
character is recessive, and so dormant, because other fac- 
tors are dominant, and so assert themselves. In other 
words, I look on every cell still capable of mitosing as pos- 
sessing the latent recessive character of producing game- 
toid tissue, and even perhaps of being pluripotential. I 
will admit that some cells may possibly have discarded, by 
accident or design, such potentialities. By virtue of the 
work required of them, by reason of specialisation, they 
may have sacrificed their birthright, just as the red cell 
of the blood has discarded its nucleus. The majority of 
multiplying cells, I believe, retain such latent potentiali- 
ties. 
I therefore put forward this view. Somatic cells are 
such because in them the somatic factor is dominant. 
Specialised cells are such because the factors bringing about 
specialisation are dominant in them, or because the co-ordin- 
ating mechanism of the individual stimulates these factors 
and inhibits others. These cells, however, also possess 
gametoid factors, which are recessive except in the case of 
the tissues set aside for reproduction. Remove the domi- 
nant somatic factors, suppress the stimuli giving them 
domination, and the gametoid factor will, of necessity, 
appear and exercise its functions. The gametoid tissue 
thus produced, under circumstances not provided for in . 
ontogeny and in places unsuited for the purpose of the 
procreation of a new individual, seems, so to speak, to run 
riot. Like the early gametogenic tissue of the germinal 
epithelium, it tends to invade the tissues surrounding it. 
From its unusual position and circumstances of origin, the 
factors that should keep this invasion in bounds and should 
modify the potential gametes into spermatozoa or ova ac- 
cording to circumstances, fail to reach or govern the cells. 
We have, in fact, an incoordinate mass of tissue, partly 
