Germ plasm

Not to be confused with Germplasm, a collection of genetic resources for an organism (such as seeds or embryos).
August Weismann's 1892 germ plasm theory. The hereditary material, the germ plasm, is transmitted only by the gonads. Somatic cells (of the body) develop afresh in each generation from the germ plasm.
August Weismann proposed the germ plasm theory in the 19th century, before the foundation of modern genetics.

Germ plasm (German: Keimplasma) is a biological concept developed in the 19th century by the German biologist August Weismann. It states that heritable information is transmitted only by germ cells in the gonads (ovaries and testes), not by somatic cells. The related idea that information cannot pass from somatic cells to the germ line, contrary to Lamarckism, is called the Weismann barrier. To some extent this theory anticipated the development of modern genetics.