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202 HERBERT SPENCER

functional variations produced by greater external
changes, are the initiators of those structural variations
which, when once commenced in a species, lead by
their combinations and antagonisms to multiform
results. Whether they are or are not the direct
initiators, they must still be the indirect initiators."

But Spencer admitted that there were numerous
minor so-called " spontaneous" variations, which
could not be referred to the causes noticed above. He
attributed these to the fact that no two ova, no two
spermatozoa, can be identical, since the process of
nutrition cannot be absolutely alike. Minute initial
differences in the proportions of the physiological
units will lead, during development, to a continual
multiplication of differences. " The insensible
divergence at the outset will generate sensible
divergences at the conclusion." This is not different
from the general idea that nutritive fluctuations in the
body provoke variations in the complex germ-plasm,
"still it may be fairly objected that however the
attributes of the two parents are variously mingled in
their offspring, they must in all of them fall between
the extremes displayed in the parents. In no charac-
teristic could one of the young exceed both parents,
were there no cause of " spontaneous variation " but
the one alleged. Evidently, then, there is a cause yet
unfound."

Spencer's further answer was that the sperm-cells
or egg-cells which any organism produces will differ
from each other not quantitatively only but
qualitatively, because inheritance is multiple. In
some the paternal units, in another the maternal
units, in another the grand-paternal or the grand-



	202 HERBERT SPENCER functional variations produced by greater external changes, are the initiators of those structural variations which, when once commenced in a species, lead by their combinations and antagonisms to multiform results. Whether they are or are not the direct initiators, they must still be the indirect initiators." But Spencer admitted that there were numerous minor so-called " spontaneous" variations, which could not be referred to the causes noticed above. He attributed these to the fact that no two ova, no two spermatozoa, can be identical, since the process of nutrition cannot be absolutely alike. Minute initial differences in the proportions of the physiological units will lead, during development, to a continual multiplication of differences. " The insensible divergence at the outset will generate sensible divergences at the conclusion." This is not different from the general idea that nutritive fluctuations in the body provoke variations in the complex germ-plasm, "still it may be fairly objected that however the attributes of the two parents are variously mingled in their offspring, they must in all of them fall between the extremes displayed in the parents. In no charac- teristic could one of the young exceed both parents, were there no cause of " spontaneous variation " but the one alleged. Evidently, then, there is a cause yet unfound." Spencer's further answer was that the sperm-cells or egg-cells which any organism produces will differ from each other not quantitatively only but qualitatively, because inheritance is multiple. In some the paternal units, in another the maternal units, in another the grand-paternal or the grand-