The History of Creation Volume I Part 8

Now, when one examines this simplest form of propagation, this self-division, it surely cannot be considered wonderful that the products of the division of the original organism should possess the same qualities as the parental individual. For they are parts or halves of the parental organism, and the matter or substance in both halves is the same, and as both the young individuals have received an equal amount and the same quality of matter from the parent individual, one can but consider it natural that the vital phenomena, the physiological qualities should be the same in both children. In fact, in regard to their form and substance, as well as to their vital phenomena, the two produced cells can in no respect be distinguished from one another, or from the mother cell. They have _inherited_ from her the same nature.

But this same simple propagation by self-division is not only confined to simple cells-it is the same also in the higher many-celled organisms; for example, in the coral zoophytes. Many of them which exhibit a high complexity of composition and organization, nevertheless, propagate themselves by simple division. In this case the whole organism, with all its organs, falls into two equal halves as soon as by growth it has attained a certain size. Each half again develops itself, by growth, into a complete individual. Here, again, it is surely self-evident that the two products of division will share the qualities of the parental organism, as they themselves are in fact halves of that parent.

Next to propagation by division we come to propagation by the _formation of buds_. This kind of monogony is exceedingly widely spread. It occurs both in the case of simple cells (though not frequently) and in the higher organisms composed of many cells. The formation of buds is universal in the vegetable kingdom, less frequent in the animal kingdom.

However, here also it occurs in the tribe of Plant-like Animals, especially among the Coral Zoophytes, and among the greater portion of the Hydroid Polyps very frequently, further also among some worms (Planarian Worms, Ring-Worms, Moss Animals, Tunicates). Most branching animal-trees or colonies, which are exceedingly like branching plants, arise like those plants, by the formation of buds.

Propagation by the _formation of buds_ (Gemmatio) is essentially distinguished from propagation by division, in the fact that the two organisms thus produced by budding are not of equal age, and therefore at first are not of equal value, as they are in the case of division. In division we cannot clearly distinguish either of the two newly produced individuals as the parental, that is as the producer, because, in fact, both have an equal share in the composition of the original parental individual. If, on the other hand, an organism sends out a bud, then the latter is the child of the former. The two individuals are of unequal size and of unequal form. If, for instance, a cell propagates itself by the formation of buds, we do not see the cell fall into two equal halves, but there appears at one point of it a protuberance, which becomes larger and larger, more or less separates itself from the parental cell, and then grows independently. In like manner we observe in the budding of a plant or animal, that a small local growth arises on a part of the mature individual, which growth becomes larger and larger, and likewise more or less separates itself from the parental organism by an independence in its growth. The bud, after it has attained a certain size, may either completely separate itself from the parental individual, or it may remain connected with it and form a stock or colony, whilst at the same time its life may be quite independent of that of its parent. While the growth which starts the propagation, in the case of self-division, is a total one affecting the whole body, it is in the formation of buds only partial, affecting merely a portion of the parental organism. But here, also, the bud-the newly-produced individual which remains so long most directly connected with the parental organism, and which proceeds from it-retains the essential qualities and the original tendency of development of its parent.

A third mode of non-s.e.xual propagation, that of the _formation of germ-buds_ (Polysporogonia), is intimately connected with the formation of buds. In the case of the lower, imperfect organisms, among animals, especially in the case of the Plant-like animals and Worms, we very frequently find that in the interior of an individual composed of many cells, a small group of cells separates itself from those surrounding it, and that this small isolated group gradually develops itself into an individual, which, becomes like the parent, and sooner or later comes out of it. Thus, for example, in the body of the Fluke-worms (Trematodes) there often arise numerous little bodies consisting of many cells, that is _germ-buds_, or _polyspores_, which, at an early stage separate themselves completely from the parent body, and leave it when they have attained a certain stage of development.

The formation of germ-buds is evidently but little different from real budding. But, on the other hand, it is connected with a fourth kind of non-s.e.xual propagation, which almost forms a transition to s.e.xual reproduction, namely, the _formation of germ-cells_ (Monosporogonia), which is often briefly called formation of spores (sporogonia). In this case it is no longer a group of cells, but a single cell, which separates itself from the surrounding cells in the interior of the producing organism, and which only becomes further developed after it has come out of its parent. After this _germ-cell_, or monospore (or, briefly, spore), has left the parental individual, it multiplies by division, and thus forms a many-celled organism, which by growth and gradual development attains the hereditary qualities of the parental organism. This occurs very generally among lower plants (Cryptogama).

Although the formation of germ-cells very much resembles the formation of germ buds, it evidently and very essentially differs from the latter, and also from the other forms of non-s.e.xual propagation which have previously been mentioned, by the fact that only a very small portion of the producing organism takes part in the propagation and, accordingly, in the transmission by inheritance. In the case of self-division, where the whole organism falls into two halves, in the formation of buds, where a considerable portion of the whole body, already more or less developed, separates from the producing individual, we easily understand that the forms and vital phenomena should be the same in the producing and produced organism. It is much more difficult to understand in the formation of germ-buds, and more difficult still in the formation of germ-cells, how this very small, quite undeveloped portion of the body, this group of cells, or this single cell, not only directly takes with it certain parental qualities into its independent existence, but also after its separation from the parental individual develops into a many-celled body, and in this repeats the forms and vital phenomena of the original producing organism. This last form of monogonic propagation-that of the germ cells, or spore-formation-leads us directly to a form of propagation which is the most difficult of all to explain, namely, s.e.xual propagation.

_s.e.xual or amphigonic propagation_ (Amphigonia) is the usual method of propagation among all higher animals and plants. It is evident that it has only developed, at a very late period of the earth's history, from non-s.e.xual propagation, and apparently in the first instance from the method of propagation by germ-cells. In the earliest periods of the organic history of the earth, all organisms propagated themselves in a non-s.e.xual manner, as numerous lower organisms still do, especially all those which are at the lowest stage of organization, and which, strictly speaking, can be considered neither as animals nor as plants, and which therefore, as primary creatures, or Protista, are best excluded from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms. In the case of the higher animals and plants, the increase of individuals, as a rule, is at present brought about in the majority of cases by s.e.xual propagation.

In all the chief forms of non-s.e.xual propagation mentioned above-in fission, in the formation of buds, germ buds, and germ cells-the separated cell or group of cells was able by itself to develop into a new individual, but in the case of s.e.xual propagation the cell must first be fructified by another generative substance. The fructifying male sperm must first mix with the female germ-cell (the egg) before the latter can develop into a new individual. These two different generative substances, the male sperm and the female egg, are either produced by one and the same individual hermaphrodite (Hermaphroditismus), or by two different individuals (s.e.xual separation, Gonochorismus) (Gen. Morph. ii. 58, 59).

The simpler and more ancient form of s.e.xual propagation is through double-s.e.xed individuals (Hermaphroditismus). It occurs in the great majority of plants, but only in a minority of animals, for example, in the garden snails, leeches, earth-worms, and many other worms. Every single individual among hermaphrodites produces within itself materials of both s.e.xes-eggs and sperm. In most of the higher plants every blossom contains both the male organ (stamens and anther) and the female organs (style and germ). Every garden snail produces in one part of its s.e.xual gland eggs, and in another part sperm. Many hermaphrodites can fructify themselves; in others, however, copulation and reciprocal fructification of both hermaphrodites is necessary for causing the development of the eggs. This latter case is evidently a transition to s.e.xual separation.

_s.e.xual separation_ (Gonochorismus,) which characterizes the more complicated of the two kinds of s.e.xual reproduction, has evidently been developed from the condition of hermaphroditism at a late period of the organic history of the world. It is at present the universal method of propagation of the higher animals, and occurs, on the other hand, only in the minority of plants (for example, in many aquatic plants, _e.g._ Hydrocharis, Vallisneria; and in trees, _e.g._ Willows, Poplars). Every organic individual, as a non-hermaphrodite (Gonochoristus), produces within itself only one of two generative substances, either the male or the female. The female individuals, both in animals and plants, produce eggs or egg-cells. The eggs of plants in the case of flowering plants (Phanerogama), are commonly called "embryo sacs"; in the case of flowerless plants (Cryptogama), "fruit spores." In animals, the male individual secretes the fructifying sperm (sperma); in plants, the corpuscles, which correspond to the sperm. In the Phanerogama, these are the pollen grains, or flower-dust; in the Cryptogama, a sperm, which, like that of most animals, consists of floating vibratile cells actively moving in a fluid-the zoosperms, spermatozoa, or sperm-cells.

The so-called _virginal reproduction_ (Parthenogenesis) offers an interesting form of transition from s.e.xual reproduction to the non-s.e.xual formation of germ-cells (which most resembles it); it has been demonstrated to occur in many cases among Insects, especially by Siebold's excellent investigations. In this case germ-cells, which otherwise appear and are formed exactly like egg-cells, become capable of developing themselves into new individuals without requiring the fructifying seed. The most remarkable and most instructive of the different partheno-genetic phenomena are furnished by those cases in which the same germ-cells, according as they are fructified or not, produce different kinds of individuals. Among our common honey bees, a male individual (a drone) arises out of the eggs of the queen, if the egg has not been fructified; a female (a queen, or working bee), if the egg has been fructified. It is evident from this, that in reality there exists no wide chasm between s.e.xual and non-s.e.xual reproduction, but that both modes of reproduction are directly connected. The parthenogenesis of Insects must probably be regarded as a _relapse_ from the s.e.xual mode of propagation (possessed by the original parents of the insects) to the earlier condition of non-s.e.xual propagation. (Gen.

Morph. ii. 86.) In any case, however, s.e.xual reproduction, both in plants and animals, which seems such a wonderful process, has only arisen at a later date out of the more ancient process of non-s.e.xual reproduction. In both cases heredity is a necessary part of the phenomenon.

In all the different modes of propagation the essential point of the process is invariably a detachment of a portion of the parental organism possessing the capability of leading an individual, independent existence. We may, therefore, in all cases expect, _a priori_, that the produced individuals-which are, in fact, as is commonly said, "the flesh and blood" of the parents-will receive the vital characteristics and qualities of form which the parental individuals possess. It is simply a larger or smaller quant.i.ty of the parental material, in fact of its alb.u.minous protoplasm, or cell-substance, which pa.s.ses to the produced individual. But together with the material, its vital properties-that is, the molecular motions of the plasma-are transmitted, which then manifest themselves in its form. Inheritance by s.e.xual breeding loses very much of the mysterious and wonderful character which it at first sight possesses for the uninitiated, if we consider the above-mentioned series of the different modes of propagation, and their connection one with another. It at first appears exceedingly wonderful that in the s.e.xual propagation of man, and of all higher animals, the small egg, the minute cell, often invisible to the naked eye, is able to transfer to the produced organism all the qualities of the maternal organism, and, no less mysterious, that at the same time the essential qualities of the paternal organism are transferred to the offspring by means of the male sperm, which fructifies the egg-cell by means of a viscid substance in which minute thread-like cells or zoosperms move about. But as soon as we compare the connected stages of the different kinds of propagation, in which the produced organism separates itself more and more as a distinct growth from the parental individual, and more or less early enters upon its independent career; as soon as we consider, at the same time, that the growth and development of every higher organism only depends upon the increase of the cells composing it-that is, upon their simple propagation by division-it becomes quite evident that all these remarkable processes belong to one series.

The life of every organic individual is nothing but a connected chain of very complicated material phenomena of motion. These motions must be considered as changes in the position and combination of the molecules, that is, of the smallest particles of animated matter (of atoms placed together in the most varied manner). The specific, definite tendency of these orderly, continuous, and inherent motions of life depends, in every organism, upon the chemical mingling of the alb.u.minous generative matter to which it owes its origin. In man, as in the case of the higher animals which propagate themselves in a s.e.xual manner, the individual vital motion commences at the moment in which the egg-cell is fructified by the spermatic filaments of the seed, in which process both generative substances actually mix; and here the tendency of the vital motion is determined by the specific, or more accurately, by the individual nature of the sperm as well as of the egg. There can be no doubt as to the purely mechanical material nature of this process. But here we stand full of wonder and astonishment before the infinite and inconceivable delicacy of this alb.u.minous matter. We are amazed at the undeniable fact that the simple egg-cell of the maternal organism, and a single paternal sperm-thread, transfer the molecular individual vital motion of these two individuals to the child so accurately, that afterwards the minutest bodily and mental peculiarities of both parents reappear in it.

Here we stand before a mechanical phenomenon of nature of which Virchow, whose genius founded the "cellular pathology," says with full justice: "If the naturalist cared to follow the custom of historians and preachers, and to clothe phenomena, which are in their way unique, with the hollow pomp of ponderous and sounding words, this would be the opportunity for him; for we have now approached one of those great mysteries of animal nature, which encircle the region of animal life as opposed to all the rest of the world of phenomena. The question of the formation of cells, the question of the excitation of a continuous and equable motion, and, finally, the questions of the independence of the nervous system and of the soul-these are the great problems on which the human mind can measure its strength." To comprehend the relation of the male and female to the egg-cell is almost as much as to solve all those mysteries. The origin and development of the egg-cell in the mother's body, the transmission of the bodily and mental peculiarities of the father to it by his seed, touch upon all the questions which the human mind has ever raised about man's existence. And, we add, these most important questions are solved, by means of the Theory of Descent, in a purely mechanical and purely monistic sense!

There can then be no further doubt that, in the s.e.xual propagation of man and all higher organisms, inheritance, which is a purely mechanical process, is directly dependent upon the material continuity of the producing and produced organism, just as is the case in the simplest non-s.e.xual propagation of the lower organisms. However, I must at once take this opportunity of drawing attention to an important difference which inheritance presents in s.e.xual and non-s.e.xual propagation. It is a fact long since acknowledged, that the individual peculiarities of the producing organism are much more accurately transmitted to the produced organism by non-s.e.xual than by s.e.xual propagation. Gardeners have for a long time made use of this fact in many ways. When, for instance, a single individual of a species of tree with stiff, upright branches accidentally produces down-hanging branches, a gardener, as a rule, cannot transmit this peculiarity by s.e.xual, but only by non-s.e.xual propagation. The twigs cut off such a weeping tree and planted as cuttings or slips, afterwards produce trees having likewise hanging branches, as, for example, the weeping willows and beeches. Seedlings, on the other hand, which have been reared out of the seed of such a weeping tree, generally have the original stiff and upright form of branches possessed by their ancestors. The same may be observed in a very striking manner in the so-called "copper-coloured trees," that is, varieties of trees which are characterized by a red or reddish brown colour of the leaves. Off-shoots from such copper-coloured trees (for example, the copper beech), which have been propagated by cuttings in a non-s.e.xual manner, show the peculiar colour and nature of the leaves which distinguished the parental individual, while others reared from seeds of such a copper-coloured tree return to the green-coloured condition of leaf.

This difference in inheritance will seem very natural when we consider that the material connection between the producing and produced individuals is much closer and lasts much longer in non-s.e.xual than in s.e.xual propagation. The special tendency of the molecular motion of life can therefore fix itself much longer and more thoroughly in the filial organism, and be more strictly transmitted by non-s.e.xual than by s.e.xual propagation. All these phenomena, considered in connection, clearly prove that the transmission of bodily and mental peculiarities is a purely material and mechanical process. By propagation a greater or lesser quant.i.ty of alb.u.minous particles, and together with them the individual form of motion inherent in these molecules of protoplasm, are transmitted from the parental organism to the offspring. As this form of motion remains continuous, the more delicate peculiarities inherent in the parental organism must sooner or later reappear in the filial organism.

CHAPTER IX.

LAWS OF TRANSMISSION BY INHERITANCE. ADAPTATION AND NUTRITION.

Distinction between Conservative and Progressive Transmission by Inheritance.-Laws of Conservative Transmission: Transmission of Inherited Characters.-Uninterrupted or Continuous Transmission.-Interrupted or Latent Transmission.-Alternation of Generations.-Relapse.-Degeneracy.-s.e.xual Transmission.-Secondary s.e.xual Characters.-Mixed or Amphigonous Transmission.-Hybrids.-Abridged or Simplified Transmission.-Laws of Progressive Inheritance: Transmission of Acquired Characters.-Adapted or Acquired Transmission.-Fixed or Established Transmission.-h.o.m.ochronous Transmission (Ident.i.ty in Epoch).-h.o.m.otopic Transmission (Ident.i.ty in Part).-Adaptation and Mutability.-Connection between Adaptation and Nutrition.-Distinction between Indirect and Direct Adaptation.

In the last chapter we considered Transmission by Inheritance, one of the two universal vital activities of organisms, Adaptation and Inheritance, which by their interaction produce the different species of organisms, and we have endeavoured to trace this very mysterious vital activity to a more general physiological function of organisms, namely, to Propagation. This latter in its turn, like other vital phenomena of animals and plants, depends on physical and chemical relations. It is true they appear at times exceedingly complicated, but can nevertheless in reality be traced to simple mechanical causes-that is, to the relations of attraction and repulsion in the particles or molecules-in fact, to the motional phenomena of matter.

Now, before we turn our attention to the second function, the phenomenon of Adaptation or Mutability, which counteracts the Transmission by Inheritance, it seems appropriate first to cast one more glance at the various manifestations of Heredity, which we may perhaps even now denominate the "_laws of transmission by inheritance._" Unfortunately, up to the present time very little has been done for this most important subject, either in zoology or in botany, and almost all we know of the different laws of inheritance is confined to the experiences of gardeners and farmers. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that on the whole these exceedingly interesting and important phenomena have not been investigated with desirable scientific accuracy, or reduced to the form of scientific laws. Accordingly, what I shall relate of the different laws of transmission are only some preliminary fragments taken out of the infinitely rich store which lies open to our inquiry.

We may first divide all the different phenomena of inheritance into two groups, which we may distinguish as the transmission of _inherited_ characters, and the transmission of _acquired_ characters; and we may call the former the _conservative_ transmission, and the latter the _progressive_ transmission by inheritance. This distinction depends upon the exceedingly important fact that the individuals of every species of animals and plants can transmit to their descendants, not only those qualities which they themselves have inherited from their ancestors, but also the peculiar, individual qualities which they have acquired during their own life. The latter are transmitted by progressive, the former by conservative inheritance. We have now first to examine the phenomena of _conservative inheritance_, that is, the transmission of such qualities as the organism has already received from its parents or ancestors. (Gen. Morph. ii. 180.)

Among the phenomena of conservative inheritance we are first struck by that which is its most general law, and which we may term the _law of uninterrupted or continuous transmission_. It is so universal among the higher animals and plants, that the uninitiated might overestimate its action and consider it as the only normal law of transmission by inheritance. This law simply consists in the fact that among most species of animals and plants, every generation is, on the whole, like the preceding-that the parents are as like the grandparents as they are like the children. "Like produces like," as is commonly said, but more accurately "similar things produce similar things." For, in reality, the descendants of every organism are never absolutely equal in all points, but only similar in a greater or less degree. This law is so generally known, that I need not give any examples of it.

The _law of interrupted or latent transmission_ by inheritance, which might also be termed alternating transmission, is in a measure opposed to the preceding law. This important law appears princ.i.p.ally active among many lower animals and plants, and manifests itself in contrast to the former in the fact that the offspring are not like their parents, but very dissimilar, and that only the third or a later generation becomes similar to the first. The grandchildren are like the grandparents, but quite unlike the parents. This is a remarkable phenomenon, and, as is well known, occurs also very frequently, though in a less degree, in human families. Every one of my readers doubtless knows some members of a family who, in this or that peculiarity, much more resemble the grandfather or grandmother than the father or mother.

Sometimes it lies in bodily peculiarities, for example, features of face, colour of hair, size of body-sometimes in mental qualities, for example, temperament, energy, understanding-which are transmitted in this manner. This fact may be observed in domestic animals as well as in the case of man. Among the domestic animals most liable to vary-as the dog, horse, and ox-breeders very frequently find that the product by breeding resembles the grandparents far more than it does its own parental organism. If we express this general law and the succession of generations by the letters of the alphabet, then A = C = E, whilst B = D = F, and so on.

This very remarkable fact appears in a more striking way in the lower animals and plants than in the higher, and especially in the well-known phenomenon of _alternation of generations_ (metagenesis). Here we very frequently find-for example, among the Planarian worms, sea-squirts or Tunicates, Zoophytes, and also among ferns and mosses-that the organic individual in the first place produces, by propagation, a form completely different from the parental form, and that only the descendants of this generation, again, become like the first. This regular change of generation was discovered by the poet Chamisso, on his voyage round the world in 1819, among the _Salpae_, cylindrical tunicates, transparent like gla.s.s, which float on the surface of the sea. Here the larger generation, the individuals of which live isolated and possess an eye of the form of a horse-shoe, produce in a non-s.e.xual manner (by the formation of buds) a completely different and smaller generation. The individuals of this second smaller generation live united in chains and possess a cone-shaped eye. Every individual of such a chain produces, in a s.e.xual manner (hermaphrodite) again, a non-s.e.xual solitary form of the first and larger generation. Among the Salpae, therefore, it is always the first, third, and fifth generation, and in like manner the second, fourth, and sixth generations, that are entirely like one another. However, it is not always only one, but in other cases a number of generations, which are thus leapt over; so that the first generation resembles the fourth and seventh, the second resembles the fifth and eighth, the third resembles the sixth and ninth, and so on.

Three different generations alternate with one another; for example, among the neat _little sea-buoys_ (Doliolum), small tunicates closely related to the Salpae. In this case it is A = D = G, further, B = E = H, and C = F = I. Among the plant-lice (Aphides), each s.e.xual generation is followed by a succession of from eight to ten or twelve non-s.e.xual generations, which are like one another, but differ from the s.e.xual generations. Then, again, a s.e.xual generation reappears like the one long before vanished.

If we further follow this remarkable law of latent or interrupted inheritance, and take into consideration all the phenomena appertaining to it, we may comprise under it also the well-known phenomena of _reversion_. By the term "reversion" or "atavism" we understand the remarkable fact known to all breeders of animals, that occasionally single and individual animals a.s.sume a form which has not existed for many generations, but belongs to a generation which has long since disappeared. One of the most remarkable instances of this kind is the fact that in some horses there sometimes appear singular dark stripes, similar to those of the zebra, quagga, and other wild species of African horses. Domestic horses of the most different races and of all colours sometimes show such dark stripes; for example, a stripe along the back, a stripe across the shoulders, and the like. The sudden appearance of these stripes can only be explained by the supposition that it is the effect of a latent transmission, a relapse into the ancient original form, which has long since vanished, and was once common to all species of horses; the original form, undoubtedly, was originally striped like the zebras, quaggas, etc. In like manner, certain qualities in other domestic animals sometimes appear quite suddenly, which once marked their wild ancestors, now long since extinct. In plants, also, such a relapse can be observed very frequently. All my readers probably know the wild yellow toad-flax (Linaria vulgaris), a plant very common in our fields and hedges. Its dragon-mouthed yellow flower contains two long and two short stamens. But sometimes there appears a single blossom (Peloria) which is funnel-shaped, and quite regularly composed of five individual and equal sections, with five corresponding stamens. This Peloria can only be explained as a relapse into the long since extinct and very ancient common form of all those plants which, like the toad-flax, possess dragon-mouthed, two-lipped flowers, with two long and two short stamens. The original form, like the Peloria, possessed a regular five-spurred blossom, with five equal stamens, which only later and by degrees have become unequal (compare p. 17). All such relapses are to be brought under the law of interrupted or latent transmission, although the number of intervening generations may be enormous.

When cultivated plants or domestic animals become wild, when they are withdrawn from the conditions of cultivated life, they experience changes which appear not only as adaptations to their new mode of life, but partially also as relapses into the ancient original form out of which the cultivated forms have been developed. Thus the different kinds of cabbage, which are exceedingly different in form, may be led back to the original form, by allowing them to grow wild. In like manner, dogs, horses, heifers, etc., when growing wild, often revert more or less to a long extinct generation. An immensely long succession of generations may pa.s.s away before this power of latent transmission becomes extinguished.

A third law of conservative transmission may be called the _law of s.e.xual transmission_, according to which each s.e.x transmits to the descendants of the same s.e.x peculiarities which are not inherited by the descendants of the other s.e.x. The so-called secondary s.e.xual characters, which in many respects are of extraordinary interest, everywhere furnish numerous examples of this law. Subordinate or secondary s.e.xual characters are those peculiarities of one of the two s.e.xes which are not directly connected with the s.e.xual organs themselves; such characters, which exclusively belong to the male s.e.x, are, for example, the antlers of the stag, the mane of the lion, and the spur of the c.o.c.k. The human beard, an ornament commonly denied to the female s.e.x, belongs to the same cla.s.s. Similar characteristics by which the female s.e.x is alone distinguished are, for example, the developed b.r.e.a.s.t.s, with the lactatory glands of female mammals and the pouch of the female opossum.

The bodily size, also, and complexion, differs in female animals of many species from that of the male. All these secondary s.e.xual qualities, like the s.e.xual organs themselves, are transmitted by the male organism only to the male, not to the female, and _vice versa_. Contrary facts are rare exceptions to the rule.

A fourth law of transmission, which has here to be mentioned, in a certain sense contradicts the last, and limits it, viz., the _law of mixed or mutual_ (amphigonous) _transmission_. This law tells us that every organic individual produced in a s.e.xual way receives qualities from both parents, from the father as well as from the mother. This fact, that personal qualities of each of the two s.e.xes are transmitted to both male and female descendants, is very important, Goethe mentions it of himself, in the beautiful lines-

"Von Vater hab ich die Statur, des Lebens ernstes Fuhren Von Mutterchen die Frohnatur und l.u.s.t zu fabuliren."

"From my father I have my stature and the serious tenour of my life, From my mother a joyous nature and a turn for poetizing."

This phenomenon, I suppose, is so well-known to all, that I need not here enter upon it. It is according to the different portions of their character which father and mother transmit to their children, that the individual differences among brothers and sisters are chiefly determined.

The very important and interesting phenomenon of _hybridism_ also belongs to this law of mixed or amphigonous transmission. It alone, when rightly estimated, is quite sufficient to refute the prevailing dogma of the constancy of species. Plants, as well as animals, belonging to quite different species, may s.e.xually mingle with one another and produce descendants which in many cases can again propagate themselves, and that indeed either (more frequently) by mingling with one of the two parental species, or (more rarely) by pure in-breeding, hybrid mixing with hybrid. The latter is well established, for example, in the hybrids of hares and rabbits (Lepus Darwinii, p. 147). The hybrids of a horse and a donkey, two different species of the same genus (Equus), are well known. These hybrids differ according as the father or the mother belongs to the one or the other species-the horse or the donkey. The mule produced by a mare and a he-donkey has qualities quite different from those of the jinny (Hinnus), the hybrid of a horse and she-donkey.

In both cases the hybrid produced by the crossing of two different species is a mixed form, which receives qualities from both parents; but the qualities of the hybrid are different, according to the form of the crossing. In like manner, mulattoes produced by a European and a negress show a different mixture of characters from the hybrids produced by a negro with a European female. In these phenomena of hybrid-breeding, as well as in the other laws of transmission previously mentioned, we are as yet unable to show the acting causes in detail; but no naturalist doubts the fact that the causes are in all cases purely mechanical and dependent upon the nature of organic matter itself. If we possessed more delicate means of investigation than our rude organs of sense and auxilliary instruments, we should be able to discover those causes, and to trace them to the chemical and physical properties of matter.

Among the phenomena of conservative transmission, we must now mention, as the fifth law, the _law of abridged or simplified transmission_. This law is very important in regard to embryology or ontogeny, that is in regard to the history of the development of organic individuals.

_Ontogeny_, or the history of the development of individuals, as I have already mentioned in the first chapter (p. 10), and as I subsequently shall explain more minutely, is nothing but a short and quick repet.i.tion of _Phylogeny_ dependent on the laws of transmission and adaptation-that is, a repet.i.tion of the palaeontological history of development of the whole organic tribe, or phylum, to which the organism belongs. If, for example, we follow the individual development of a man, an ape, or any other higher mammal within the maternal body from the egg, we find that the ftus or embryo arising out of the egg pa.s.ses through a series of very different forms, which on the whole agrees with, or at least runs parallel to, a series of forms which is presented to us by the historical chain of ancestors of the higher mammals. Among these ancestors we may mention certain fishes, amphibians, marsupials, etc. But the parallelism or agreement of these two series of development is never quite complete; on the contrary, in ontogeny there are always gaps and leaps which indicate the omission of certain stages belonging to the phylogeny. Fritz Muller, in his excellent work, "Fur Darwin,"(16) has clearly shown in the case of the Crustacea, or crabs, that "the historical record preserved in the individual history of development is gradually obscured, in proportion as development takes a more and more direct route from the egg to the complete animal." This process of obscuring and shortening is determined by the law of abridged transmission, and I mention it here specially because it is of great importance for the understanding of embryology, and because it explains the fact, at first so strange, that the whole series of forms which our ancestors have pa.s.sed through in their gradual development are no longer visible in the series of forms of our own individual development from the egg.

Opposed to the laws of the conservative transmission, hitherto discussed, are the phenomena of the transmission of the second series, that is, the _laws of progressive transmission by inheritance_. As already mentioned, they depend upon the fact that the organism transmits to its descendants not only those qualities which it has inherited from its own ancestors, but also a number of those individual qualities which it has acquired during its own lifetime. Adaptation is here seen to be connected with transmission by inheritance (Gen. Morph. ii. 186).

At the head of these important phenomena of progressive transmission, we may mention the _law of adapted or acquired transmission_. In reality it a.s.serts nothing more than what I have said above, that in certain circ.u.mstances the organism is capable of transmitting to its descendants all the qualities which it has acquired during its own life by adaptation. This phenomenon, of course, shows itself most distinctly when the newly acquired peculiarity produces any considerable change in the inherited form. This is the case in the examples I mentioned in the preceding chapter as to transmission in general, in the case of the men with six fingers and toes, the porcupine men, copper beeches, weeping willows, etc. The transmission of acquired diseases, such as consumption, madness, and albinism, likewise form very striking examples. Albinoes are those individuals who are distinguished by the absence of colouring matter, or pigments, in the skin. They are of frequent occurrence among men, animals, and plants. In the case of animals of a definite dark colour, individuals are not unfrequently born which are entirely without colour, and in animals possessing eyes, this absence of pigment extends even to the eyes, so that the iris of the eye, which is commonly of a bright or intense colour, is colourless, but appears red, on account of the blood-vessels being seen through it.

Among many animals, such as rabbits and mice, albinoes with white fur and red eyes are so much liked that they are propagated in great numbers as a special race. This would be impossible were it not for the law of the transmission of adaptations.

Which of the changes acquired by an organism are transmitted to its descendants, and which are not, cannot be determined _a priori_, and we are unfortunately not acquainted with the definite conditions under which the transmission takes place. We only know in a general way that certain acquired qualities are much more easily transmitted than others, for example, more easily than the mutilations caused by accidents. These latter are generally not transmitted by inheritance, otherwise the descendants of men who have lost their arms or legs would be born without the corresponding arm or leg; but here, also, exceptions occur, and a race of dogs without tails has been produced by consistently cutting off the tails of both s.e.xes of the dog during several generations. A few years ago a case occurred on an estate near Jena, in which by a careless slamming of a stable door the tail of a bull was wrenched off, and the calves begotten by this bull were all born without a tail. This is certainly an exception; but it is very important to note the fact, that under certain unknown conditions such violent changes are transmitted in the same manner as many diseases.

In very many cases the change which is transmitted and preserved by adapted transmission is const.i.tutional or inborn, as in the case of albinism mentioned before. The change then depends upon that form of adaptation which we call the indirect or potential. A very striking instance is furnished by the hornless cattle of Paraguay, in South America. A special race of oxen is there bred which is entirely without horns. It is descended from a single bull, which was born in 1770 of an ordinary pair of parents, and the absence of horns was the result of some unknown cause. All the descendants of this bull produced with a horned cow were entirely without horns. This quality was found advantageous, and by propagating the hornless cattle among one another, a hornless race was obtained, which at present has almost entirely supplanted the horned cattle in Paraguay. The case of the otter-sheep of North America forms a similar example. In the year 1791 a farmer, by name Seth Wright, lived in Ma.s.sachusetts, in North America; in his normally formed flock of sheep a lamb was suddenly born with a surprisingly long body and very short and crooked legs. It was therefore unable to take any great leaps, and especially unable to leap across a hedge into a neighbour's garden-a quality which seemed advantageous to the owner, as the territories were divided by hedges. It therefore occurred to him to transmit this quality to other sheep, and by crossing this ram with normally shaped ewes, he produced a whole race of sheep, all of which had the qualities of the father, short and crooked legs and a long body. None of them could leap across the hedges, and they therefore were much liked and propagated in Ma.s.sachusetts.

A second law, which likewise belongs to the series of progressive transmissions, may be called the _law of established or habitual transmission_. It manifests itself in this, that qualities acquired by an organism during its individual life are the more certainly transmitted to its descendants the longer the causes of that change have been in action, and that this change becomes the more certainly the property of all subsequent generations the longer the cause of change acts upon these latter also. The quality newly acquired by adaptation or mutation must be established or const.i.tuted to a certain degree before we can calculate with any probability that it will be transmitted at all to the descendants. In this respect transmission resembles adaptation.

The longer a newly acquired quality has been transmitted by inheritance, the more certainly will it be preserved in future generations. If, therefore, for example, a gardener by methodical treatment has produced a new kind of apple, he may calculate with the greater certainty upon preserving the desired peculiarity of this sort the longer he has transmitted the same by inheritance. The same is clearly shown in the transmission of diseases. The longer consumption or madness has been hereditary in a family the deeper is the root of the evil, and the more probable it is that all succeeding generations will suffer from it.

We may conclude the consideration of the phenomena of inheritance with the two very important laws of _h.o.m.otopic_ and _contemporaneous transmission by inheritance_. We understand by them the fact that changes acquired by an organism during its life, and transmitted to its descendants, appear in the same part of the body in which the parental organism was first affected by them, and that they also appear in the offspring at the same age as that at which they did so in the parent.

_The law of contemporaneous or h.o.m.ochronous transmission_, which Darwin calls the law of "transmission in corresponding periods of life," can be shown very clearly in the transmission of diseases, especially of such as are recognized as very destructive, on account of their hereditary character. They generally appear in the organism of the child at the time corresponding with that in which the parental organism contracted the disease. Hereditary diseases of the lungs, liver, teeth, brain, skin, etc., usually appear in the descendants at the same period, or a little earlier than they showed themselves in the parental organism, or were contracted by it. The calf gets its horns at the same period of life as its parents did. In like manner the young stag receives its antlers at the same period of life in which they appeared in its father or grandfather. In every one of the different sorts of vine the grapes ripen at the same time as they did in the case of their progenitors. It is well known that the time of ripening varies greatly in the different sorts; but as all are descended from a single species, this variation has been acquired by the progenitors of the several sorts, and has then been transmitted by inheritance.

The _law of h.o.m.otopic transmission_, which is most closely connected with the last mentioned law, and which might be called the law of transmission in corresponding parts of the body, may also be very distinctly recognized in pathological cases of inheritance. Large moles, for example, or acc.u.mulations of pigment in several parts of the skin, tumours also, often appear during many generations, not only at the same period of life, but also in the same part of the skin. Excessive development of fat in certain parts of the body is likewise transmitted by inheritance. Above all, it is to be noted that numerous examples of this, as well as of the preceding law, may be found everywhere in the study of embryology. Both the _law of h.o.m.ochronous and h.o.m.otopic transmission are fundamental laws of embryology, or ontogeny_. For these laws explain the remarkable fact that the different successive forms of individual development in all generations of one and the same species always appear in the same order of succession, and that the variations of the body always take place in the same parts. This apparently simple and self-evident phenomenon is nevertheless exceedingly wonderful and curious; we cannot explain its real causes, but may confidently a.s.sert that they are due to the direct transmission of the organic matter from the parental organism to that of the offspring, as we have seen above in the case of the process of transmission in general, by a consideration of the details of the various modes of reproduction.