Then you and I and all of us receive these memories from our fathers and mothers, as they received them from their fathers and mothers.

Therefore there must be a medium whereby these memories are transmitted from generation to generation.

This medium is what Weismann terms the "germplasm." It carries the memories of the whole evolution of the race.

These memories are dim and confused, and many of them are lost.

But some strains of germplasm carry an excessive freightage of memories--are, to be scientific, more atavistic than other strains; and such a strain is mine.