CHAPTER XIV

HEREDITY AND GERMINAL CONTINUITY--MENDEL, GALTON, WEISMANN

It is a matter of common observation that in the living world like tends to produce like. The offspring of plants, as well as of animals, resembles the parent, and among all organisms endowed with mind, the mental as well as the physical qualities are inherited. This is a simple statement of the fact of heredity, but the scientific study of inheritance involves deep-seated biological questions that emerged late in the nineteenth century, and the subject is still in its infancy.

In investigating this question, we need first, if possible, to locate the bearers of hereditary qualities within the physical substance that connects one generation with the next; then, to study their behavior during the transmission of life in order to account for the inheritance of both maternal and paternal qualities; and, lastly, to determine whether or not transiently acquired characteristics are inherited.

Hereditary Qualities in the Germinal Elements.--When we take into consideration the fact established for all animals and plants (setting aside cases of budding and the division of unicellular organisms), that the only substance that passes from one generation to another is the egg and the sperm in animals, and their representatives in plants, we see that the first question is narrowed to these bodies. If all hereditary qualities are carried in the egg and the sperm--as it seems they must be--then it follows that these germinal elements, although microscopic in size, have a very complex organization. The discovery of this organization must depend upon microscopic examination. Knowledge regarding the physical basis of heredity has been greatly advanced by critical studies of cells under the microscope and by the application of experimental methods, while other phases of the problems of inheritance have been elucidated by the analysis of statistics regarding hereditary transmissions. The whole question, however, is so recent that a clear formulation of the direction of the main currents of progress will be more helpful than any attempt to estimate critically the underlying principles.

Early Theories.--There were speculations regarding the nature of inheritance in ancient and mediæval times. To mention any of them prior to the eighteenth century would serve no useful purpose, since they were vague and did not form the foundation upon which the modern theories were built. The controversies over pre-formation and epigenesis (see