Transom

“ The threshold then which is physical in character limits consciousness, but how can the two be limited by each other when they are totally different in nature? In assuming two different universes, we assert that the two cannot limit each other, but in examining again the concept of threshold we make a contradictory assertion that the two can and do limit each other.
The very analogy on which the concept of "transmission function" is based is illegitimate when applied to consciousness in its relation to the physical world. ”

“ If it be retained for the neo-Darwinian and Mendelian provinces there is nothing to say against it, but I adopt here with pleasure the alternative term, often used by Professor Thomson, “modification.” This is wide enough to include the more clear-cut “character” so long as one makes it clear that the latter is one of the germinal variations. Further, I hold that his use of the term “transmission” instead of “inheritance” is the more useful for a wide range of phenomena. ”

“ By modifications I mean those changes which are in some way wrought in the body-structure, and by variations those differences which are of germinal origin. That variation of germinal origin is a fact in organic nature is admitted on all hands, and that some variations are adaptive is also unquestioned. Transmissionists contend that modification in a particular direction in one generation is, through the transmission of the change in some way from the bodily tissues to the germinal cells, a source of variation in the same direction in the next generation. ”

“ Adaptation, or transmutation is, on the other hand, essentially the consequence of material influences, which the substance of the organism experiences from the material surrounding it,—in the widest sense of the word from the160 conditions of life. The external influences of the latter are communicated to the individual parts of the body by the molecular processes of nutrition. In every act of Adaptation the individual molecular motion of the protoplasm, peculiar to each part, disturbs and modifies the whole individual, or part of it, by mechanical, physical, or chemical influences. ”

“ Is it too fanciful to suppose that the centrosome, which makes its appearance in the protozoön on its approach to conjunction, and which seems to rule the rearrangement of the chromatin elements within it, is the analogue of the radiating force in human courtship which so strangely sifts out and remoulds the elements of the lover’s personality? Does the magic of the centrosome correspond in some sense to the glamour, so well known in human affairs? And do they both proceed from some deep-hidden, profoundly important manifestation of the life, the energy, the divinity if you will, of the Race? ”

“ Transvestism.—The psycho-sexual anomaly of transvestism consists in the desire for cross-dressing. The male patient has the abnormal desire to dress like a woman, and the female patient longs to dress like a man. It is in this respect akin to the anomaly of homosexuality. In the degrees of effemination and viraginity, cross-dressing is a prominent symptom. The homosexual pathicus has naturally the impulsive desire to dress like a woman, and vice versa, the Lesbian woman longs to dress like a man. ”

“ For if brain substance, for example, contributes nothing to the reproductive cells, any modification it acquires during individual life can only reach the germ through some indirect mode of influence. But does it-does any modification of the body substance -- so affect the germ as to become hereditary? Prof. Weismann answers this question by asserting that the evidence for the direct transmission of acquired characters is wholly insufficient, and by contending that, until· satisfactory evidence is forthcoming, we may not accept transmission as a factor in evolution. ”

“ Transmission supposes something which may be transmitted; if, then, the act of consciousness is transmitted, it must be something permanent in itself, in the midst of the succession of the substances; and this is a very strange conclusion to which the German philosopher is brought by his theory of transmission. All psychologists had said that the substance of the soul is permanent, and its phenomena transitory; now, on the contrary, we find that the transitory is the substance, and that which is permanent is the phenomenon, or the act of consciousness which is transmitted. ”

“ Why am I a sexual invert? I have an explanation to offer, which is perhaps more fanciful than scientific. Is there not a difference between the “protoplasm” or cellular tissue of males and of females, which is the ground of the difference in the physical and psychical development of the sexes? Must there not be in the protoplasm of males a specific male “germ” or characteristic, and in the protoplasm of females a different germ, which are the ground of the opposite development of the sexes? ”

“ Now the entire embryonal development of the human child is in reality no more than a continuous process of ecphoration of old engrams, one after another. And the entire complex of our living human organism is made up entirely of these energy-complexes engraved on our consciousness or subconsciousness. The sum total of all these engrams, in a living human being, according to the theory advanced, is given the name of mnema. That which the child receives in the way of energies contained in the germ-cells from its ancestors is his hereditary mnema. ”

“ Transmutation therefore is, when a thing loseth its form, and is so altered, that it is altogether unlike to its former substance, and form, but assumes ano [Pg 62] ther form, another essence, another colour, another vertue, another nature, or property, as if a Metall bee made glasse, or stone: if a stone bee made a coale: if wood be made a coal: clay be made a stone, or a brick: a skin bee made glew: cloth bee made paper, and many such like things. All these are Transmutations of Naturall things. ”

“ The gene for brown eyes is dominant in this case while the gene for blue eyes is recessive.
8 Parents and Offspring
How does the fertilized ovum obtain its particular set of chromosomes in the first place?
Each adult possesses gonads in which sex cells are formed. In the male, sperm cells are formed in the testes; in the female, egg cells are formed in the ovaries.
In the formation of the sperm cells and egg cells there is a key step—meiosis—a cell division in which the chromosomes group into pairs and are then apportioned between the daughter cells, one of each pair to each cell. ”

“ Those holding to the theory of descent, evolution, or transmutation, look upon varieties, species, subgenera, genera, families, orders, classes, and sub-kingdoms, as distinctions of merely transient importance, corresponding to the state of our information at the present time; it being assumed that by means of gradual transmutation during the course of ages all organisms have become evolved from a single primitive cell, or from a few primitive types. ”

“ No character whose development is dependent in greater or less degree on the stimulation of some substance derived from the gonads can have originated as a mutation, because the term mutation means a new character which develops in the soma as a result of the loss or gain of some factor or determinant in the chromosomes. To say that certain mutations consist of new factors which only the development of characters in the soma when the part of the soma concerned is stimulated by a hormone, is a mere assertion unsupported at present by any evidence. ”

“ My dear Romanes,—I have read your two articles in 'Nature,' and nothing can be clearer or more interesting, though I had gathered your conclusions clearly from your other papers. It seems to me that unless you can show that your muslin (in your simile) is rather coarse, the transmission may be considered as passing in any direction from cell or unit of structure to cell or unit; and in this case the transmission would be as in Dionæa, but more easily effected in certain lines or directions than in others. It is splendid work, and I hope you are getting on well in all respects. ”

“ If transmutation, when thus tested, has decidedly the advantage over progression, and yet is comparatively in disfavour, we may reasonably suspect that its reception is retarded, not so much by its own inherent demerits, as by some apprehended consequences which it is supposed to involve, and which run counter to our preconceived opinions. ”

“ All organic forms originally spring from a simple cell, the development of which, as indicated by the final form attained, is manifestly dependent on the physical conditions it has been exposed to during its course. If those conditions change, that final form must change correspondingly; and in this manner, since all organic beings come from the same starting-point—the same cell, as has been said, which helplessly submits to whatever impression may be put upon it—the issue is the same as though a transformation or transmutation had occurred, since the descendant is not like its ancestors. ”

“ In the fertilized ovum there are an equal number of chromosomes derived from each parent; and if the female provides the shrine in which the new development takes place, the male (centrosome) appears as the organizing genius of the process.
15. This process, by which a fertilized germ-cell divides and redivides, and so builds up a “body,” is quite similar to that by which a protozoön divides and redivides to form a numerous colony. ”

“ Yet the evidence of the natural transmutation of species, is, in one respect, much stronger than that of the natural transmutation of languages—in respect, namely, of there being a vastly greater number of cases all bearing testimony to the fact of genetic relationship. ”

“ Hitherto, no rival hypothesis has been proposed as a substitute for the doctrine of transmutation; for 'independent creation,' as it is often termed, or the direct intervention of the Supreme Cause, must simply be considered as an avowal that we deem the question to lie beyond the domain of science. ”

“ The transmutation of one sort of atom into another is therefore not a mere visionary fancy, but an established fact; and although our laboratory experiments in this direction may not as yet have gone very far, they have gone far enough to show that a Law of Transmutation does exist in Nature. ”

“ All acknowledge the existence of variations and admit that their proximate source is in the fertilized ovum. All admit that the individual is, through its plasticity, in greater or less degree capable of adaptive modification. Transmissionists contend that the effects of modification are somehow transferred to the germinal substance there to give origin to variations. Selectionists deny this transmission and contend that adaptive [p. 735] variations are independent of adaptive modifications.
Now, what is natural selection, at any rate as understood by the master -- Darwin? ”

“ Trans-kingdom RNA signaling is now a documented phenomenon with intriguing implications for our understanding of biological interactions. Similar to ideas proposed by Sarkies and Miska on “social RNA” [41] , the presented evidence for trans-kingdom RNAi suggests that genetic interaction between organisms at the RNA level is common. Organisms become genetically programmed according to endogenous and environmental input. Hitherto, we have known these to include physical and chemical stimuli from other organisms. ”

“ In consequence there are two classes of sperms in man; female producing containing 24 chromosomes, and male producing containing 23 chromosomes. If the factor for color blindness is carried by the X chromosome its inheritance in man works out on the same chromosome scheme and in the same way as does white eye color (or any other sex linked character) in the fly, for the O sperm in man is equivalent to the Y sperm in the fly. ”

“ How far the Doctrine of Independent Creation is opposed to the Laws now governing the Migration of Species. CHAP. 22. OBJECTIONS TO THE HYPOTHESIS OF TRANSMUTATION CONSIDERED. Statement of Objections to the Hypothesis of Transmutation founded on the Absence of Intermediate Forms. Genera of which the Species are closely allied. Occasional Discovery of the missing Links in a Fossil State. Davidson's Monograph on the Brachiopoda. Why the Gradational Forms, when found, are not accepted as Evidence of Transmutation. ”

“ I have never doubted about the transmission of changes which depend upon an alteration in the germ-plasm of the reproductive cells, for I have always asserted that these changes, and these alone, must be transmitted. If any one makes the contrary assertion, he merely proves that he does not understand what I have said upon the subject. In what other way could the transformation of species be produced, if changes in the germ-plasm cannot be transmitted? ”

“ Conclusions Expression of the targeted transgenes was shown to be affected by both the presence of selectable marker cassettes and by the orientation of the transgenes with respect to the endogenous ROSA26 promoter. These results suggest that transcriptional interference from the endogenous gene promoter or from promoters in the selectable marker cassettes may be affecting transgene expression at the locus. Additionally we have been able to determine the optimal orientation for transgene expression at the ROSA26 locus. ”