3. All
variations can be explained by his own theory without such
transmission. Why then believe that acquired characteristics can in
some inconceivable way affect the germ-cells so as to reappear in
the next generation, as long as all the facts can be explained in a
more simple and easily conceivable manner?
As to his second argument, I would readily acknowledge that it is at
present difficult or impossible for me to conceive how any cell can
act upon another, except through the nutrient or other fluids which
it can produce. But though I cannot conceive how one cell can affect
another, I may be compelled to believe that it does so. And this
Weismann readily acknowledges.
Driesch changed by pressure the relative position of the cells of a
very young embryo, so that those which in a normal embryo would have
produced one organ were now compelled, if used at all, to form quite
a different one. And yet these displaced cells formed the organ
required of cells normally occupying this new position, not the one
for which they were normally intended. And the organ which they
would have builded in a normal embryo was now formed by other cells
transferred to their rightful place.
What made them thus change? Not change of substance or structure,
for the slight pressure could hardly have modified this.
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