Note 7 — PART II DARWINISM AND THE ATOMISTIC INTERPRETATION OF INHERITANCE SUMMARY (continued 2)

Two quotations from his writings may be added to justify the foregoing criticism of Weismann. Concerning the essentially creative rôle of Natural Selection he wrote, “The transformation of a species as well as the preservation of its constancy are based upon natural selection, and this is incessantly at work, never ceasing for a moment.” (Germ Plasm, p. 414.)

Elsewhere he states that heredity and variation are coextensive. “We have seen that this transmission affects the whole organism, and extends to the most trifling details, and we also know that it is never complete, and that the offspring and parent are never identical, but that the former always differs more or less from the latter. These differences give rise to the phenomenon of variation, which thus forms an integral part of heredity, for the latter always includes the former.” (The Germ Plasm, p. 410.)