No. 637] 



IMMUNE SERA 



103 



which will single out and destroy a certain element of an 

 adult organism, is it not possible that there is sufficient 

 constitutional identity between the mature substance of 

 that element and its representatives in the germ-cell that 

 they too will be influenced? Is this not a way of getting 

 at the old yet ever new problem of the inheritance of 

 body acquirements, or at least of breaking in on the 

 germ? Is it not possible to secure selective action on 

 certain parts of the developing embryo and thus shed 

 some light on the genesis of congenital abnormalities? 

 And by using the cytolytic and other immunologic 

 methods may not additional knowledge be gained con- 

 cerning the relations of mother and fetus? 



Of this series of problems the one which tantalizes the 

 biologist most of all, perhaps, is that concerned with the 

 possible hereditary transmission of characters acquired 

 directly by the body of a parent. As you know, this has 

 been a bone of contention for many years. The so-called 

 Neo-Lamarckians follow, at least in a modified form, the 

 teachings of Lamarck to the effect that such "acquired 

 characters" are or may be inherited; the other school, 

 often called Neo-Darwinians, strenuously deny such in- 

 heritance, and assert that the sole font of specific change 

 lies in the germplasm. According to them any new in- 

 heritable feature which appears first arises in the germ 

 and only finds somatic expression when this germ devel- 

 ops into a body. 



How important he considered the correct solution of 

 this problem is shown in the following statement of Her- 

 bert Spencer. He said : ' ' Conceraing the width and depth 

 of the effects which the acceptance or non-acceptance of 

 one or the other of these hypotheses must have on our 

 views of life, the question. Which of them is true? de- 

 mands beyond all other questions whatever the attention 

 of scientific men. A grave responsibility rests on biolo- 

 gists in respect of the general question, since wrong 

 answers lead, among otlier effects, to wrong belief about 



