Excerpt from The Germ-Plasm: A Theory of Heredity In preparing the English edition of the present work, I have had the great advantage of being able to consult Professor Weismann personally with regard to many of the more difficult passages. Only those who have attempted to make a translation of an abstruse work from German manuscript, can appreciate the difficulties of rendering such a work into good English, and at the same time of keeping closely to the text. As the time in which the translation had to be prepared was a comparatively short one. I have been unable to revise the style as thoroughly as I could have wished, but trust that the author's meaning has been expressed with tolerable accuracy. In the case of special technical terms which have no recognised English equivalents, I have in all cases added the German word in brackets the first time they are used. For the extremely useful and untranslateable word 'Anlage,' the somewhat awkward term 'primary constituent' has been used when it refers to the concrete vital units: in other cases, it has been rendered by 'rudiment;' or, when it has a more abstract meaning, by 'predisposition.' The words 'Eigenschaft,' 'Charakter,' 'Merkmal,' and 'Qualität,' are often used synonymously by the author, and have therefore been indiscriminately translated by 'characteristic,' 'character,' 'peculiarity,' and 'quality.' I must express my thanks to Dr. G. H. Parker, of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., who kindly undertook a first revision of Chapters XIII. and XIV., and thereby rendered an earlier publication of the book possible; as well as to my friend and colleague Mr. Franck Arnold, for help in elucidating some of the more complicated sentences, and for many suggestions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.