I do not know that Professor Weismann has anywhere distinctly stated what he conceives to be the relation of body-plasm and germ-plasm in the protozoa. Are the two as yet undifferentiated? This can hardly be so, seeing the fundamental distinction he draws between them. Is it the germ-plasm or the body-plasm that is influenced by external stresses? If the former, does it transfer its influence to the body-plasm during the life of the individual? If the latter, then the body-plasm must either directly influence the germ-plasm in unicellular organisms (it would seem that, according to Professor Weismann, it cannot do so in the metazoa), or the changed body-plasm, which shares in the fission of the protozoon, must participate in that so-called immortality which is often said to be the special prerogative of germinal matter. These, however, are matters for Professor Weismann and his followers to settle. I regard the sharp distinction between body-plasm and germ-plasm as an interesting biological myth. For me, it is sufficient that the protoplasm of the protozoon is modified, and the modification handed on in fission. And it is clear that Professor Weismann is correct in saying that the commixture or combination of characters takes its origin among the protozoa. If the unicellular individuals are differently modified, however slightly, then, whenever conjugation occurs between two such individuals, there will be a commingling or combination of the different characters. The transmissible influence of the environment, however, ceases when the metazoon status is reached, and special cells are set apart for reproductive purposes--ceases, that is to say, in so far as the influence on the body is concerned. There may, of course, be still some direct[BU] influence on the germinal cells themselves. Except for this further influence, the metazoon starts with the stock of variations acquired by that particular group of protozoa--whatever it may be--from which it originated. All future variations in even the highest metazoa arise from these. Now, it is obvious that no mere commingling and rearrangement of protozoan characters could conceivably give rise to the indefinitely more complex metazoan characters. But if there be a combination and recombination of these elements in ever-varying groups, the possibilities are no longer limited. Let us suppose that three simple protozoan characters were acquired. The mere commixture of these three could not give much scope for further variation. It would be like mixing carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen in varying proportions. But let them in some way combine, and you have, perhaps, such varied possibilities as are open to chemical combinations of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, whose name is legion, but whose character is determined by the laws of chemical combination.