50 
THE ORGANIC CELL 
which it receives as a birthright from its parents or have 
originated in the germ from which it has sprung, was not 
clearly perceived until Weismann’s teaching had taken root, 
but his central position is now the basis of all modern work on 
heredity and has introduced a different temper into the believers 
of progress. Whilst it was still possible to hold that characters 
or attainments acquired during the lifetime and activity of the 
organism were commonly transmitted to its descendants, a 
rapid and constant evolution in an upward direction seemed 
possible for the human race. Man had only to strive, his 
descendants would proportionally increase in virtue, and a 
race of men would be evolved which might know or even practise 
the proscriptions of the Mosaic dispensation from their earliest 
infancy. The realities of history and heredity do not sanction 
such dreams, and we must be content to know that while man 
may lose almost everything by the loss of a tradition, he can 
never by vicarious effort spare his descendants the pain of 
assiduously acquiring it by practice.’ 1 
I will conclude with a quotation from Prof. Punnett’s 
classical Essay on Mendelism. ‘ Education is to a man what 
manure is to a pea. The educated are in themselves the better 
for it, but their experience will alter not one jot the irrevocable 
nature of their offspring. Permanent progress is a question of 
breeding rather than of pedagogics ; a matter of gametes, not 
of training. As our knowledge of heredity clears, and the mists 
of superstition are dispelled, there grows upon us with ever- 
increasing and relentless force the conviction that the creature 
is not made but born.’ 2 
1 Primitive Animals. By Geoffrey Smith. 
2 Mendelism. By R. C. Punnett. 
I 
i 
