Against Dogma and Free-will and for Weismanism

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Introduction To The Second Edition. XI

mitted to reply in tHat organ. He is sangaine enough to hope that the controversy, now placed, as fully as practicable, before the reader, may strongly tend to establish the writer^s propositions among the intelligent public.

Again, as some of the main theses advanced in the earlier treatise are based on the researches of Professor Weismann, the aathor has been impelled to incorporate in this volume a sketch of Weismannism and two articles referriug to that subject, which originally appeared in the National Reforvner. It is hoped that the reader may thus be afforded a more coherent grasp of the newly-discovered biological facts than could be obtained from the necessarily incidental treatment accorded to the subject in the earlier treatise.

Finally, as a reply to those critics who have taxed him with assailing " morality,^' the author has added the short essay entitled ^^ Social Expediency."

The writer will here express his obligation to Mr. W. Piatt Ball for reading the ensuing biological chapters and offering courteous suggestions of which the writer has gratefully availed himself. He farther has a high appreciation of th,e moral effect likely to ensue from the outspoken manner in which he has been supported by a scientist of Mr. Ball's eminence. Nor, on the other hand, can the writer deny himself the luxury of a little sentimental outpouring with regard to Mr. Robertson, whose unfailing courtesy, whose combative thoroughness, whose intellectual power, and, particularly, whose earnest criticism of propositions which, at present, the Press seems discreetly anxious to keep at arm's length, have rendered to the writer, a hard duty, the adequate denunciation of Mr. Robertson's fallacies. The writer can readily appreciate Mr. Robertson's zeal to

XU INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION.

maintain the subjective propositions for wHch he so strenuously contends as being essential to social advance. On the other hand, the writer feels assured that a man of Mr. Eobertson's intellectual calibre will ultimately adapt himself to the conditions imposed by recent research, more especially, as these new conditions are inevitably destined to prevail and are not really antagonistic to Mr. Eobertson^s essential projects, but, on the contrary, are far better calculated to promote them than are the products of mere a priori ratiocination by which those projects have been, hitherto, to a large extent, supported.

The writer regrets that the National Reformer is about to expire. During the few months he has known of its existence, he has read it with more interest than any other periodical literature. He hopes that its successor, the Free BsvieWy may maintain the high level of intellectual and literary excellence which has characterized the National Beformer.

September ^th, 1893.

Contents

AGAINST DOGMA AND FEEE-WHL

INTEODUOTION.

VAOK

The writer's scheme— Preliminaiy definitions of Truth, Nature, and

the Law of Nature ....... 1

Chapter I

The methods of Science contrasted with those of Dogma — The theories of Lamarck, Darwin, and Weismann considered in respect to physical, mental, and moral evolution — Their bearing on the metaphysics of Dogma — The " unstable equilibrium" of Society — Selfishness, the root-motive of humanity— Good and evil shown to be social expediency and inexpediency — ^Virtue and vice dependent on organism. ..... 8

CHAPTER 11.

Consciousness arises only after other cerebral actions — Metaphysics

useless to prove ** free-will " — The velocity of thought measured . 34

Chapter III

The brain can only think through co-operation of the peripheral sensibilities — Case illustrating this — The brain shown to be a machine — Cerebral heat considered in reference to ** free-will " — Moral and sensual pain — The genesis of right and wrong — Sacerdotalism and morality — Memory explained — The importance of the memorizing faculty — Hypnotism, in reference to " freewill " — Judgment, will, intelligence : what they are — The futility of trying to oppose Nature — Human achievements : what they are according to Science — The Inscrutable of Science contrasted with the deity of orthodoxy — ^Ferrier's experiments in cerebral localization : their bearing on " free-will " — ^Pathology in reference to " free-will " — Embryology, in reference to an originally perfect man ........ 40

Chapter IV

Human Knowledge merely relative — The Deity of Science — The Beligion of Science — Dogma and Beason — Miracles — ^Visions- Prophets — ^Religion must satisfy Beason — Conscience : what it is — The expediency of fifty years hence . . . .95

XIV COKTENTS.

CHAPTEE V.

PAQS

Two representative views of "free-will": those of the Bishop of Manchester and Mr. Nisbet contrasted — The former shown a contradiction in terms — A supematurally free will must be constant in action ; cannot vary with organism — ^No amalgamation possible of Science with the metaphysics of Dogma — We must either grant, or deny " free-will," absolutely : a limited " free-will " is incomprehensible — Dogmatic and scientific religions irreconcilable ...... 106

Chapter VI

The genesis of ** volition " illustrated — ^Dogma's " ego " assumed and shown incomprehensible and unnecessary — Human penalties more efficacious than the assumed supernatural, in restraining mankind — * * Everlasting puni shment ' ' considered — Dogmatic religion has not changed human nature — The Beligion of Science opens "the bowels of compassion" — The old idea of creation exploded— Dogma has renounced the claim to a special inspiration of her traditions — What is the criterion by which men are now to decide her authority in matters outside the physical cosmos? — Prophecy and Mania — ^Why a later thinks as an earlier generation —The renunciation of "free-will" not equivalent to fatalism — ^The drift of social evolution . . . . 118

CHAPTER Vn.

The anthropomorphism of Dogma irreconcilable with " free-will " — Expounders of " orthodoxy " are now superfluous — The comparative claims of ecclesiasticism and Science on the intellectual respect of mankind — Ecclesiasticism exemplifies the unalterable edict of Nature : that men shall be selfish — How ecclesiastics can be honest— Science seeks to destroy no true religion . . 139

Chapter VIII

Ecclesiastioism is effecting its own disintegration— The "eminent Thirty-eight" — The anthropomorphism of modem orthodoxy compared with thai of the ancient Jews — The Church of England must pitch overboard Dogma, or Dogma will send her to the bottom — ^A cursory consideration of the Canon, showing how rife was contention as to its authenticity — All religions, equally with all organisms, strictly the product of evolution • . 148

CONTENTS. XV

WEISMANNISM.

PAOX

Preface To Rudimentary Weismannism 161

CHAPTER L— RUDIMENT ART WEISMANNISM 161

CHAPTER II 168

CHAPTER III 175

CHAPTER IV.— SPENCER OR WEISMANN ? . 182

CHAPTER v.— WEISMANNISM AND ITS

ADVERSARIES 187

Introduction To Weismannism And

SOCIOLOGY 197

CHAPTER VI.— WEISMANNISM AND SOCIO- LOGY 222

CHAPTER VII. . . . . . .230

CHAPTER VIII 234

Chapter Ix.— Social Expediency . . 245 Appendix.— Romanes And Weisma.nn . 273

INDEX 287

CORRIGENDA AND SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.

Note to page 125, as continuation of first paragraph : —

With a refinement of diabolical ingenuity, it was even propounded that helpless babes were not exempt from these eternal tortures. Does not it arouse all the resentment in human nature to know that such lies as the following were foisted on the minds of grief -stricken mothers by a Church which professed to exemplify the doctrine of universal Love ? " Hold most firmly, and by no means doubt, that little children, whether they die before or after births pass, without the holy sacrament of baptism, from this world, to be punished with the everlasting punishment of eternal fire." (St. Fulgentius.)

We can now treat this stufif with the contempt it deserves ; but think of the thousands upon thousands of mothers who believed it I Think of the human agony represented by those few words, then ask yourselves whether that agony has been outweighed by the raptures of all the " saints " and ** converted sinners " of Christianity.

Note to page 141, as continuation of second paragraph : —

Unless the bishop, as a true follower of Augustine, Calvin, and other vehicles of the revelation of vengeance, wishes us to believe that the Deity deUberately consigns certain creatures to perdition, we must infer that this ** directive originating activity " is beyond the power and the knowledge of Deity : otherwise, that the Creator is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. No verbal quibbles will enable us to escape this dilemma.

Page 67 ^ line 18 : —

For Deldoeuf read Delboeuf .

Ready instead of text, page 71, lines 20-22 : —

If reminiscent and peripheral excitations contend and neither prevail, " volition is not manifested : the individual hesitates. If this is a marked characteristic of the cerebral conformation, the individual is said to be timid, irresolute, too cautious.

Bead, instead of text, page 121, line 24 : — If it cannot fix human responsibility.

AGAINST

DOGMA AND PKEE-WILL.

Introduction

The writer's original aim was, in a few lines, to place those who might witness or read a certain stage-play, at his own standpoint, in respect to the psychological problem involved in one of his characters — Fenton.

One cannot argue with a colour-blind person about chromatics. The public are in much the same position with respect to certain psychical realities, as is the colour-blind man with respect to chromatics. Hence the writer intended, in a Bhorfc preface to his play, to provide against inevitable misapprehension. However, as the subject widened out under treatment, he felt impelled to considerably diverge from his earlier intention. He realized that, to adequately express his views, a much more serious demand than originally contemplated must be made on the reader's attention, and that if such views represent truth, as, after mature reflection and inquiry, the writer believes they do, then it was his duty to help, as others are helping, to propagate them.

The world is now on the brink of an epoch-making renunciation of doctrines which, for centuries, have been the instruments of Nature in her work of evolution, but which, having served their purpose, are now destined to be thrown aside.

It must be evident to every earnest person who can

2 INTRODUCTION.

recall his doctrinal convictions of twenty years ago, that time has played havoc with them ; that the blind trustfulness which once rendered him a willing affirmer of dogmatic mystery, is now supplanted by disquieting doubts rendering hiTTi either a scoflTer at, or merely a mechanical votary of his idol. These phases of mental condition represent its average contemporary character in relation to Dogma, and as Dogma, to the mass of mankind, through long-enduring custom, has represented the very essence of religion, the latter has naturally been prejudicially affected by the impending fall of Dogma. The mind of civilization is now awaiting a fresh revelation. This revelation Science is destined to afford.

In the ensuing pages we purpose accomplishing what, so far as we are aware, has not, under like conditions and in the same manner, been attempted. We purpose to demolish the hypothesis of "free-will" and the dogmatic assumptions based on that hypothesis. We shall endeavour to achieve our end by utilizing the latest scientific verifications, which we hope to place before the reader under new aspects and which we shall supplement by certain speculations not familiar to the general public, to the average scientist, or even to some philosophers. We shall meet the " free-will " advocate on his own ground ; we shall grant his premisses, and we hope, by his own premisses, to demonstrate the utter fallacy of his conclusions.

The first research to which we shall devote attention will be Weismann^s latest verifications respecting the origin of life and the factors of heredity. These go to the very root of organic existence, and must radically affect all our religious and sociological notions. Mr. Herbert Spencer's philosophy, based on the fallacy that extraneous influences may be transmitted hereditarily, will now need considerable modification, and we shall find that the reforming zeal so characteristic of contemporary society, is likely to develop unforeseen consequences.

INTRODUCTION. O

We shall next glance at Darwin^s theory of Natural Selection. This accounts satisfactorily for the evolution of till types of organism, and, we shall try to show, is inconsistent with the prevalent conceptions of " free-will ^^ and ■an anthropomorphic deity.

Incidentally, in the course of our examination of the various branches of scientific research bearing on our subject, we shall venture to expound, and, we trust, establish, <5ertain ethical propositions of a novel and, we believe, vitally important nature. We hope to establish so firmly that the most sinuous verbal dexterity of opponents shall be powerless against our conclusions, the fact that the <jurrent notions of good and evil are radically false; that the conventional definitions of virtue and vice are entirely untrue ; that real morality is as different a thing from the ^' morality^' of Dogma as is ethereal vibration from what we sensually apprehend as light; that all the deductions dependent on these conventions are, in the not distant future, bound to be discarded by thinking men. We fully apprehend the gravity of these pretensions which we deliberately make, and the issue of which we confidently await.

As an inevitable inference from the new truth, it will become evident that what are euphemistically termed the rights of property are destined to sufier some hard rubs. As human faculties are entirely dependent on the accident of bodily conformation, society will soon decide that the material results of the successful exercise of such faculties belong rather to society than to the individual recipient of Nature^s bounty. To what extent such reasoning will be .carried into practice will depend on the needs of society and will vary with its fluctuating standards of expediency. The principle itself will be universally admitted.

We shall prove, we believe, to demonstration, that every phase of cerebral action involving thought and what we call volition, is as strictly a natural phenomenon, entirely

4 INTRODUCTION.

dependent on organic factors, as is the circulation of the blood. We shall satisfactorily account to reason — ^if not to emotion — ^for every action of what it has pleased certain theorists to define as a supernatural attribute, by the same methods which these theorists would apply to explaining the action of steam on a locomotive. We intend that these methods shall as logically explain the phenomenon of mental, as of mechanical, energy.

In furtherance of this purpose, we shall have to direct the reader's attention to the latest verifications of scientific psychology, a due comprehension of which will enable him to form the only possible rational conception of what it has. hitherto been the business of metaphysics to involve in a hopeless maze of fallacious verbiage. Having considered all the departments of cerebral activity, we shall specially devote ourselves to an attack on dogmatic pretension, the absurdity of which we hope to effectually demonstrate.

In the course of our work we shall be compelled to record a protest against some inconsistencies in the procedure of certain eminent scientists and thinkers, who,, while furthering the work of demolition, have shrunk from the logical issue of their own achievements. As seeking truth only, and as realizing to what extent truth has hitherto been shackled by the devices of the partisans of fallacy, we feel bound to deprecate any concession to the adversary, under whatsoever guise that concession may appear. Wer feel that the ground must be cleared of all obstructions to an accurate perception and a final settlement of the great issues : are the doctrines of " free-will '' and an anthropomorphic deity longer tenable by thinking men ?

If we may seem occasionally to lapse into an impetuosity of treatment of our subject, unusual in logical controversy, it is because we believe that the advocate is the best fighter against popular prejudice. Our work aims at arousing society from a condition of lethargic insouciance towards exploded fallacy, to an intelligent appreciation of a newly

INTEODUCrriON. o

ticquired truth. There being no reason why the emotive should not help truth as it has helped Dogma, we have endeavoured so to combine the judicial with the rhetorical appeal that each may touch the mind specially responsive to its influence.

It will be advisable here to define the meanings we attach to three terms which, being concise and expressive, will be freely used in the course of this treatise. By ^' Nature ^^ we mean, not a metonymical confusion of cause and effect involving personification of the Cosmos, but, the evolutionary method, so far as it has been ascertained by Science, of that mysterious Energy behind the universe. We trust that the reader will bear in mind this definition, as a loose and utterly untenable significance, inducing trains of thought diametrically opposed to any reliable process of in(5[uiry, is frequently attached to the term.

By " Truth ^^ we mean a conclusion verified by reason apart from emotion.

Truth, as concerns humanity, can only be measured by t5onsciousness. There may be, and probably there is, truth outside consciousness ; but if it cannot be authenticated by human apprehension, that truth is beyond the range of practical consideration. When man's sensibility impels him towards such problematical truth, the impulse merely induces a subjective conclusion absolutely derived from anterior subjective conclusions. Generations of men adopted the subjective conclusion that the sun moved round the earth ; even now, mere sensibility inclines us to adopt the illusion which only reason and experience enable us to discard. The human being untaught from birth the traditions of his time and country could not generate the emotional conclusions of his fellow-men. These he acquires solely through tutelage. Naturally, he adopts what error is inherent to those conclusions. As all our nineteenth-century sensibility is evolved from the sensibility of the first man, could we believe that this first man was tha

6 INTRODUCTION.

perfect being designated by Dogma, we might venture to infer that our sensibility was the reminiscence of some superior faculty, and we might honour accordingly it& occasional transcendentalism. However, Science has placed beyond doubt the fact that this first man was scarcely distinguishable from the nineteenth century orang-outang ! So we cannot say much for the pedigree of our sensibility^

Everything, in a sense, is, to the individual, truth, towhich his sensibility impels him : the disordered visions of the lunatic, the dreams of the sane man, the distorted chromatics of the colour-blind, are all, to the individuals, truth j but they are fallacy to the collective normal reasoij. and experience, and these are the only standards by which humanity, in the aggregate, can discriminate between truth, and fallacy.

In the course of this work we hope to clearly definereason, and to demonstrate its claim to override mere sensibility as a guide to certain truths which it is customary to relegate to the determination of this sensibility.

Language is the only means by which reason can conceive or express truth. What we vaguely apprehend beyond the expressive power of language may be truth, or the reverse. Whether truth or fallacy, it is outside the domain of reason, and consequently cannot be identified as one or the. other.

Truth is occasionally felt by sensibility before it i& apprehended by reason. Then, it can only be recognized as truth, after confirmation by reason.

All truth within the grasp of humanity is transmuted reality. As this transmutation is a fundamental condition imposed by Nature, it follows that all truth within our apprehensive capacity must be merely relative. Nevertheless, such relative truth is adequate to the needs of humanity ; man need not seek to transcend it.

In this treatise we shall accordingly consider nothing Truth which may not be expressed by language and con-

INTRODUCTION. 7

firmed by reason and experience. Restricted by these limitations^ we hope to carry the reader beyond even the realms of emotion ; we shall render apparent to his reason more than Dogma has tried to picture to his sensibility. By the " Law of Nature," we mean the conditions under which that orderly sequence of phenomena prevalent from the beginning of the universe, occurs. This law being demonstrably the very opposite of a mere chance sequence of events, we are constrained to consider it the eflFect of design ; and, as it is, so far as human reason can apprehend, absolutely constant in operation, we are warranted in basing the widest deductions on its unvarying and universal operation and in rejecting any assumption of exception from its influence. Moreover, when we can explain a phenomenon by the operation of this law, it is evidently absurd to gratuitously import an outside factor to account for such phenomenon. This, we intend to prove, is what mankind have, for several ages, been doing.

The object of this work is not to destroy men's faith in the supernal. Rather it is to establish that faith. We wish to drive men to the only supernatural which, under the present conditions of knowledge, is possible as an object of real belief, to the mind of rational humanity. That supernatural is the Supernatural of Science. We shall try to render the Supernatural of Science so apparent to men's understanding that it becomes the one cogent fact of their existence, dwarfing into insignificance all their other actualities. We aim at the destruction of cant, pretence, and delusion. We fight for honesty, reason, and truths If, in prosecuting our enterprise, we hurt many susceptibilities, we must plead that our cause is greater than the emotions of mankind, and that " Truth fears nothing but concealment.^'

CHAPTEE I.

The only systematic methods of abstract inquiry known to the world originated from two Greek philosophers — Plato and Aristotle. Plato^s system deduced from a primitive idea to particulars ; Aristotle's induced from particulars to general principles. Hence they may respectively be termed deductive and inductive methods. One was essentially based on the imagination; the other on reason. Platonism reached its conclusions rapidly, but often inaccurately j AristoteHanism, slowly, but accurately. One was brilliant, but delusive; the other unpretentious, but sure. Dogma is an example of the former; Science, of the latter method.

To the deductive principle, prematurely adopted, mankind owe most of the fallacies by which they have been transiently dominated ; to the inductive, all the verities destined for ever to sway the human mind.

The greater the number of isolated facts we have collected tending to establish a general conclusion, the more assured we may feel of the truth of that conclusion. If we have accumulated an overwhelming number of facts, and all these facts tell the same tale, we may then reasonably assume that such tale is absolute Truth (always bearing in mind that this absolute truth is only absolute so far as concerns human power of apprehension, and that with absolute truth apart from this power of apprehension, we need not here concern ourselves), and we

Chap. I.] Against Dogma And Peee-will. 9

may confidently predict from this Truth, the estabKshment of further, as yet unverified, conclusions. This is the Aristotelian method which, accordingly, embraces the Platonic, but with strict limitations. In thus predicting, we use the Platonic method which is then admissible, because, by sufficient induction, we have established an absolute verity.

Step by step, proceeding on these principles, rigidly rejecting what is unconfirmed by induction, Science has accumulated all the exact knowledge we now possess.

Let us see how far these methods will carry us in trying to solve some problems of fundamental interest to mankind. Let us see whether by induction from various sources of knowledge we can show that Dogma is a guide such as no rational man would trust in the ordinary affairs of life.

Lamarck, a French naturalist, propounded a theory that acquired qualities were transmissible by heredity. On the assumed truth of this theory has been built up all the socialistic speculation of modern times./- Among other deductions made from it was one that the effects of education and other extraneous influences would be grafted into the nature of posterity. Lamarck^s theory has been recently demolished.

It is now conclusively shown that extraneous influences only affect the individual immediately subjected to them ; that, to permanently affect the type through heredity, the germ-cell must be modified before the individual is bom, and that no such modification can ensue from any influences affecting the individual during life.

The research which has yielded these momentous results is that devoted to the infinitely little. The microscope, in conjunction with splendid scientific ability and heroic determination to probe, so far as she will permit, the mystery of Nature, has revealed the theory of '^ The continuity of the germ-plasm,'^ by which Weismann prmci^^ltj ^ and Galton in a secondary degree, have demolished the assumption that extraneous influences afEect the type.

Science, unlike Dogma, is quite ready to renounce her most highly-prized convictions so soon as facts disprove them. She would, under similar circumstances, renounce the theory of gravitation as readily as she has Lamarck^s.

Weismann's theory is based on these facts.

The original of terrestrial organic life was a one-cell being, with no faculties but those of assimilation and reproduction. This creature could not be said to die. One divided into two exactly ahke. ^^In this way countless numbers of individuals arise, each of which is as old as the species itself, while each possesses the capability of living on indefinitely by means of division. . . . Each individual of any such unicellular species living on earth to-day is far older than mankind, and is almost as old as life itself. (Weismann on " Heredity .^^)

After ages, a number of these cells clustered together, and as a result of relativity of position, lost their homogeneity. Some were better adapted to nourishing, others to reproducing. From this division of function arose a differentiation of groups into somatic and reproductive.- Very soon, the somatic surpassed in numbers the reproductive cells, and through the principle of division of labour,. became more diversified in tissue. Concurrently with these changes, the somatic cells lost the power of reproducing the whole organism, and only the reproductive cells proper retained this function. Thus arose the germ-cell,, the potential reproducer of all the other cells of the organism. This germ-cell retains the potential immortality of the primal cell which the others have lost. This potential immortality does not mean that such cells cannot be killed — ^merely that they have no natural death. They die when the containing organism dies, but in the understood, sense, this is accidental death to the germ-cell.

Through this germ-cell, and through it only, can the type*

CHAP. I.] AGAINST DOGMA AND FEEE-WILL. 11

be hereditarily affected. No influencje, other than its own spontaneity, can modify it. Through such spontaneous change, under the law of Natural Selection, have been evolved all the different organisms peopling, or which have peopled the globe.

"I believe that heredity depends upon the fact that a small portion of the effective substance of the germ, the germ-plasm, remains unchanged during the development of the ovum into an organism, and that this part of the germ-plasm serves as a foundation from which the germ-cells of the new organism are produced. There is therefore continuity of the germ-plasm from one generation to another. One might represent the germ-plasm by the metaphor of a long creeping root-stock from which plants arise at intervals, these latter representing the individuals of successive generations. Hence it follows that the transmission of acquired characters is an impossibility, for if the germ-plasm is not formed anew in each individual but is derived from that which preceded it, its structure, and above all its molecular constitution, cannot depend upon the individual in which it happens to occur, but such an individual only forms, as it were, the nutritive soil at the expense of which the germ-plasm grows, while the latter possessed its characteristic structure from the beginning, viz. before the commencement of growth. But the tendencies of heredity, of which the germ-plasm is the bearer, depend upon this very molecular structure, and hence only those characters can be transmitted through successive generations which have been previously inherited, viz. those characters which were potentially contained in the structure of the germ-plasm. It also follows that these other characters which have been acquired by the influence of special external conditions, during the lifetime of the parent, cannot be transmitted at all.'* (Weismann.)

All multicellular organisms are derived from eggs*

12 AGAINST DOGMA AND FEEB-WILL. [CHAP. I.

These eggs are of two classes : sexual and asexual, or parthenogenetdc. In other words : one class requires, in order to generate a being, fertilization by the male nucleus, or spermatozoon ; the other requires no fertilization. Bach eggf of both classes, contains a substance called germ-plasm, from which the egg proceeds through certain phases of growth peculiar to itself, and then, having reached maturity as an egg, is ready to develop in another manner : into an embryo. The substance into which a part of the germ-plasm changes to cause the specialized egg-growth, is called ovogenetic nucleo-plasm. As soon as the sexual egg has reached maturity, it makes two nuclear sub-divisions of itself. These two sub-divisions are respectively composed of germ-plasm and ovogenetic nucleo-plasm, and are expelled from the egg as polar bodies. The first expulsion is of ovogenetic nucleo-plasm; the second, of germ-plasm. The significance of these two expulsions was an unsolved enigma, until Weismann discovered the solution. Here it is. When the histological development of the sexual egg is completed, the ovogenetic nucleo-plasm, into which one part of the original germ-plasm has changed, has done its work, and, if retained, would hinder the operation of the remaining germ-plasm in evolving the embryo. Accordingly, as above remarked, the ovogenetic nucleoplasm is expelled from the sexual egg, as the first of the two polar bodies. There is still the second expulsion to account for. Before Weismann had discovered the true reasons, eminent embryologists, such as Minot, Balfour, and Van Beneden, supposed that the expulsion of both bodies occurred merely to get rid of the male elements of the assumed hermaphrodite female egg-cell. Weismann has demolished this assumption by various objections fatal to it, and by showing that the first expulsion occurs for the above-mentioned purpose of getting rid of the ovogenetic nucleo-plasm, and that, with the second expulsion, as many different kinds of idioplasms, carrying hereditary