No. 575] RESPONSES OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 663 



sponsible for many pseudo-problems of heredity and development, 

 which on the basis of a different theory could never have occupied the 

 attention and wasted the energy of biologists. Briefly my position is, 

 that the gonad primordiuni is. at least up to a certain stage of develop- 

 ment, physiologically a part of the individuality as are other organs, 



The independence of the germ plasm is not well sup- 

 ported physiologically. Tims Wilson ('12, p. 1 (>•">) says 

 of the effect of prolonged ingestion of alkaline salts by 



Dungav ('13) and authors cited have thrown compara- 

 ble light on this question. 

 The facts of embryology themselves are but a pseudo 



ity is supposedly demonstrable are highly individuated 

 and their organs highly specialized and many different 

 organs are early separated from the common mass of 

 cells. The germ cells thus follow the general law of 

 development in such animals. The germ plasm is prob- 

 ably no more independent of other parts of the organism 

 than is the liver or any other special tissue. "Germ 

 plasm" and "germinal continuity," if such exist, may 

 thus be merely incidental to the particular type of organi- 

 zation of the specialized individuals in which they occur. 



It should further be noted that on the botanical side 

 this doctrine of the independence and continuity of the 

 germ plasm has received little attention and has been 

 given little credence because "germ plasm" arises from 

 different tissues and is neither set aside early from the 

 soma nor is it in any other sense clearly continuous. 



