216 The American Naturalist. [March, 
hypothesis, that such Kinetogenetic organic energies as are not 
under the control of the organism, are the product of the cata- 
genesis of energies which were at one time under such control. 
4 MNEMOGENESIS. 
The above term is employed by Prof. Hyatt’ to characterize 
the manner in which kinetogenesis is supposed to produce re- 
sults in inheritance. I have suggested that the phenomena of 
recapitulation, characteristic of ontogeny (Amer. Naturalist, 
Dec., 1889), are due to the presence of a record in the germ 
cells, having a molecular basis similar to that of memory. 
This view is adopted by Professor Hyatt. I have already re- 
ferred to it in the preceding pages. The stimuli which are 
thus recorded are those which produce growth effects in the 
body or soma, so that each stimulus may have a double influ- 
ence. For this reason I have termed this theory of the distri- 
bution of energy, Diplogenesis (loc. cit.). 
The first statement of the mnemonic theory of heredity 
which I can discover, is that made by Hering in 1870? Itis 
concentrated in the following paragraph: “ The appearance of 
properties of the parental organism in the full-grown filial or 
ganism can be nothing else but the reproduction of such pro- 
cesses of organized matter as the germ when still in the germ- 
inal vesicles had taken part in; the filial organism remembers, 
so to speak, those processes, as soon as an occasion of the same 
or similar irritations is offered a reaction takes place as for- 
merly in the parental organism, of which it was then a 
and whose destinies influenced it.” In explanation of this the- 
ory Hering says: “ We notice, further on, that the process of 
development of the germs which are destined to attain an in- 
dependent existence, exercises a powerful reaction upon ° 
the conscious and unconscious life of the whole organist. 
And this is a hint that the organ of germination is o 
and more momentous relation to the other parts, especially t 
the nervous system, than another organ. In an inverse Ta o 
the conscious and unconscious destinies of the whole organist 
8 Proceeds. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 1893, p. 73. 
Address before the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna, 
Edwald Hering. 
s ¢ 
purer Weert = N 
