ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 165 



than other children, or that the children of football 

 players have bigger legs. 



William Brewer suj)j)osed that the speed of trot- 

 ting horses was due chiefly "to better training but 

 also in part to special exercise of function." Later 

 Caspar Redfield insisted that the wisest sons have 

 been born to the more aged fathers, and that the rec- 

 ords of racing horses show that the fastest colts have 

 come from parents that have been trained for rac- 

 ing; but his statistics will not stand the scrutiny of 

 an actuary. Pearl has shown the fallacies that lie 

 concealed in his premises. 



The loss of a part is supposed in popular tradi- 

 tions to lead sometimes to its absence in the off- 

 spring. The typical example is that of the cat whose 

 tail was pinched off by a closing door. Her kittens 

 were tailless. There are, I believe, authentic cases of 

 this sort, but it is also true that unpinched cats often 

 have tailless kittens. In fact there is a special breed of 

 these cats which when crossed to other cats transmit 

 their peculiarity, and since from the nature of things 

 the paternity of cats in general is always 023en to 

 suspicion no great weight is to be attached to an oc- 

 casional accident and the occurrence of tailless kit- 

 tens — except in so far as it illustrates a curious 

 faculty of the human mind to draw f)remature in- 

 ferences. In rebuttal to the cat anecdotes it should 

 be pointed out that some races of dogs and sheep 



