regard the sterile forms
of ants, which have gradually been adapted in several directions to
varying functions, AS A CERTAIN PROOF that selection really takes place
in the germ-cells of the fathers and mothers of the workers, and that
SPECIAL COMPLEXES OF PRIMORDIA (IDS) are present in the workers and in
the males and females, and these complexes contain the primordia of the
individual parts (DETERMINANTS). But since all living entities vary, the
determinants must also vary, now in a favourable, now in an unfavourable
direction. If a female produces eggs, which contain favourably varying
determinants in the worker-ids, then these eggs will give rise to
workers modified in the favourable direction, and if this happens with
many females, the colony concerned will contain a better kind of worker
than other colonies.

I digress here in order to give an account of the intimate processes,
which, according to my view, take place within the germ-plasm, and which
I have called "GERMINAL SELECTION." These processes are of importance
since they form the roots of variation, which in its turn is the root
of natural selection. I cannot here do more than give a brief outline of
the theory in order to show how the Darwin-Wallace theory of selection
has gained support from it.

With others, I regard the minimal amount of substance which is contained
within the nucleus of the germ-cells, in the form of rods, bands, or
granules, as the GERM-SUBSTANCE or GERM-PLASM, and I call the individual
granules IDS. There is always a multiplicity of such ids present in the
nucleus, either occurring individually, or united in the form of rods
or bands (chromosomes). Each id contains the primary constituents of a
WHOLE individual, so that several ids are concerned in the development
of a new individual.

In every being of complex structure thousands of primary constituents
must go to make up a single id; these I call DETERMINANTS, and I mean
by this name very small individual particles, far below the limits of
microscopic visibility, vital units which feed, grow, and multiply
by division. These determinants control the parts of the developing
embryo,--in what manner need not here concern us. The determinants
differ among themselves, those of a muscle are differently constituted
from those of a nerve-cell or a glandular cell, etc., and every
determinant is in its turn made up of minute vital units, which I
call BIOPHORS, or the bearers of life. Accor