Gerund

“ In the case of higher plants, the widespread occurrence of tissues with power of reproduction, the occurrence of budding in almost any part of the body in lower animals and in plants, and the widespread powers of regeneration of lost parts, are easily intelligible if every cell like the egg-cell has been formed by doubling division, and so contains the germinal material for every part of the organism, and thus, on the call of special conditions, can become a germ-cell again. ”

“ If we study any seed whatever we shall find some such motherly provision for the plant baby or germ. Sometimes the germ is a mere speck with a large amount of food packed around it, as is the case with the nutmeg; sometimes the baby is larger and its food is packed in a part adjacent to it, as is the case with the corn (Fig. 279) ; and sometimes the mother stuffs the baby itself so that it has enough to last it until its own little roots and leaves bring it mature food, as is the case with the squash seed. ”

“ Granted that each species has arisen by evolution from some other, this germ-cell which is observed in the body of the threadworm, must be regarded as part of what may well be called a stream of germ-plasm, that reaches back to the beginning of life in the world. ”

“ I am also far from asserting that the germ-plasm which, as I hold, is transmitted as the basis of heredity from one generation to another, is absolutely unchangeable or totally uninfluenced by forces residing in the organism within which it is transformed into germ-cells. I am also compelled to admit it as conceivable that organisms may exert a modifying influence upon their germ-cells, and even that such a process is to a certain extent inevitable. The nutrition and growth of the individual must exercise some influence upon its germ-cells . ”

“ Here we are upon ground which is more or less in our own choice or control. It is impossible to alter germ-plasm; but it is not impossible to control the environment in which it exists. To these two groups of characters, the germinal and those acquired under stimulus, there is to be added the third group which we have mentioned on a previous page, namely, those that are usually termed variations. For example, one occasionally finds that one individual in a family, the parents of which, and the other members of which, are quite normal, may be born with six fingers instead of five. ”

“ From the view-point of cell-differentiation, which seems to me the most tenable position, there does not seem any evidence for, or any probability of, the occurrence of any roundabout mode of development of the germinal cells which could enable them to pick up acquired characters en route.
(d) We come now to the contention that the organism, being one and continuous, if any member suffers, the germ suffers with it. The organs of the body are not isolated or insulated; the blood is a common medium; the nerves ramify everywhere ”

“ Mankind creates itself, of fears?
That spring like fern, that insect weed,
Equivocally, without seed.'
The reproductive organs or spores borne on the fronds of a fern produce, on germination, a thin green structure, known as the prothallus, less than an inch in length: this bears the sexual organs, and as the result of the union of the male and female cells, the embryo fern-plant begins its existence as a parasite on the inconspicuous prothallus, until after unfolding its first green leaf and thrusting a slender root into the ground, it starts its career as an independent organism [2] . ”

“ More than one brood of parasites may be in the blood of the individual at the same time, one producing sporulation at one time and another at a different time. Such a simultaneous growth of two independent broods may plainly produce almost any kind of modification in the regularity of the disease. ”

“ The Germ-Cells.—According to Spencer, "sperm-cells and germ-cells are essentially nothing more than vehicles in which are contained small groups of the physiological units in a fit state for obeying their proclivity towards the structural arrangement of the species they belong to," and "if the likeness of offspring to parents is thus determined, it becomes manifest, a priori, that besides the transmission of generic and specific peculiarities, there will be a transmission of those individual peculiarities which, arising without assignable causes, are classed as spontaneous." ”

“ It is the opinion of Muller that the entire vital principle of the egg {25}resides in the germinal disk alone, and since the external influences which act on the germs of the most different organic beings are the same, we must regard the simple germinal disk, consisting of granular amorphous matter, as the potential whole of the future animal, endowed with the essential and specific force or principle of the future being, and capable of increasing the very small amount of this specific force and matter, which it already possesses, by the assimilation of new matter. ”

“ The elective affinity of the gemmules for the cells which precede them in growth may be paralleled by the affinity of the male and female germ-cells, as we see in the preference of a plant for the pollen grains of its own over those of closely-allied species, or by the attraction of the minute germs of disease to certain tissues of the body. ”

“ This kernel then dries as you see here, but when the nut falls on favourable soil, the germ within the kernel swells until it bursts through the shell, and, taking root, springs up a new tree.'
`I do not understand,' said Fritz, `how the little germ manages to get through this great thick shell, which is not like an almond or hazel-nut shell, that is divided down the middle already.'
`Nature provides for all things,' I answered, taking up the pieces. `Look here, do you see these three round holes near the stalk; it is through them that the germ obtains egress. ”

“ If that germ-plasm is liable to certain peculiar modifications in the father or grandfather, it is liable to the same or similar modifications in the offspring, that is, if the father could become a drunkard, so could the son, only we must not think that the post hoc is here the same as the propter hoc. If we compare the germ-plasm to the molecules constituting the stem or branches of a vine, its grapes and leaves in their similarity and their variety would be comparable to the individuals belonging to the same family, and springing from the same family tree. ”

“ Whether it is a fact or not that somatic variations can induce corresponding variations in the germ-cells, [65] and thus be transmitted by heredity, it is certainly true that all heritages must come through the germ-cells. For this reason, it is clearly seen that so far as evolution is concerned the germ-cells are the factors of fundamental importance in organisms. Therefore, we may repeat that environment is the sum-total of the conditions of life that affect the germ-cells directly or indirectly. ”

“ Why the germ, which before impregnation undergoes a certain amount of development, ceases to progress and perishes, unless it be acted on by the male element; and why conversely the male element, which is enabled to keep alive for even four or five years within the spermatheca of a female insect, likewise perishes, unless it acts on or unites with the germ, are questions which cannot be answered with any certainty. ”

“ Anterior, however, to both germ and product is the organism from which the germ was derived. For every germ implies two organisms, the parent and the progeny. For germ or seed is both the seed of the organism from which it came, of the horse, for instance, from which it was derived, and the seed of the organism that will eventually arise from it, of the mule, for example, which is developed from the seed of the horse. ”

“ We may fairly attribute to the adult organism influences which determine the phyletic development of its descendants. For the germ-cells are contained in the organism, and the [66] external influences which affect them are intimately connected with the state of the organism in which they lie hid. If it be well nourished, the germ-cells will have abundant nutriment; and, conversely, if it be weak and sickly, the germ-cells will be arrested in their growth. ”

“ It is clear that the organism that best uses its organs has, other things equal, the best chance of survival. It will therefore hand on to its offspring germinal matter with an inherent tendency to make vigorous use of its faculties.
Those who argue thus deny that the body-cells can in any way affect the germ-cells. To account for any continuous increase in faculty, they invoke variation and the selection of favourable varieties. What, then, we may now ask, is, on their view, the mode of origin of variations? ”

“ IT has occurred to the writer that the adoption of the germ theory of disease necessarily involves the application of the theory of evolution, and that here may be found a means of accounting for the genesis of the various forms of disease. Germs are living matter; they must therefore be under the influence of those laws and forces which condition all living matter. ”

“ A fertilised germ appears here, as amongst higher organisms, to be the point of departure; and that constant formation of new tissue implied in the production of a great number of individuals by fission, seems gradually to exhaust the germinal capacity in the same way that the constant formation of new tissue, during the development of a single mammal, exhausts it. ”

“ So far common observation is competent to a solution of the facts; but beyond this we come to the enquiry, what resemblances are there in the early conditions of plants and animals. Each originates from nucleated cells, endowed by the All-seeing Power with a blind impulse of progressive development; the most simple cell of a vegetable multiplies itself by a generation of new cells within it, when the parent dies, and liberates the offspring. Here progression is simply multiplication ”

“ A seed sown in a field germinates without any extraneous aid. When it becomes a germ, no one knows and no one sees. But, when once the seed is sown, wherever the sower may be, it gradually grows from a germ to a tree, and raises its head aloft. ”

“ Individual traits are not transmitted from the hen to the egg, but they develop out of germinal factors which are carried along from cell to cell, and from generation to generation....”
“The germ is the undeveloped organism which forms the bond between successive generations; the person is the developed organism which arises from the germ under the influence of environmental conditions, the person develops and dies in each generation; the germ-plasm is the continuous stream of living substance which connects all generations. ”

“ From arguments before used, and crossing, we may generally suspect in germ; but I repeat it does not follow, that the change should be apparent till life fully developed; any more than fatness depending on heredity should be apparent during early childhood, still less during fœtal existence. In case of horns of cattle, which when inherited must depend on germinal vesicle, obviously no effect till cattle full-grown. ”

“ Owen remarks ('Parthenogenesis,' 1849, pp. 5-8) , "Not all the progeny of the primary impregnated germ-cell are required for the formation of the body in all animals: certain of the derivative germ-cells may remain unchanged and become included in that body which has been composed of their metamorphosed and diversely combined or confluent brethren: so included, any derivative germ-cell, or the nucleus of such, may commence and repeat the same processes of growth by imbibition, and of propagation by spontaneous fission, as those to which itself owed its origin;" ”

“ Just as the organism produces an ovum from which an organism like itself develops, so do the cells of the organism produce gemmules, which find their way to the ovum and become the germs of similar cells in the developing embryo. "The child, strictly speaking," says Darwin, "does not grow into a man, but includes germs which slowly and successively become developed and form the man." "Each animal may be compared with a bed of soil full of seeds, some of which soon germinate, some lie dormant for a period, whilst others perish." ”

“ A bud or a cutting separated off from a living creature—tiger-lily or potato, polyp or worm—reproduces an entire organism like the parent, if the appropriate nurture-conditions are available; and it can do so because it is a fair sample of the parental organisation. Similarly a germ-cell or two germ-cells in conjunction can develop into a creature like the parent or parents, in virtue of being the condensed essence of the parental organisation. ”

“ Linnæus asserts, "that it grows old at one extremity, while it continues to generate young ones at the other, proceeding ad infinitum, like a root of grass. The separate joints are called gourd-worms, and propagate new joints like the parent without end, each joint being furnished with its proper mouth, and organs of digestion." Systema naturæ. Vermes tenia. In this animal there evidently appears a power of reproduction without any maternal apparatus for the purpose of supplying nutriment and oxygenation to the embryon, as it remains attached to its father till its maturity. ”

“ And in all cases—in the humblest alga as in the oak, in the protozoon as in the mammal—this fertilized germ results from the union of the contents of two cells. Whether, as among the lowest forms of life, these two cells are seemingly identical in nature; or whether, as among higher forms, they are distinguishable into sperm-cell and germ-cell; it remains throughout true that from their combination results the mass out of which is evolved a new organism or new series of organisms. ”