ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 167 



other Chinamen. Nearer home we do not observe 

 the effects of the corsets of our grandmothers on the 

 size of the waists of our children. 



Several years ago a famous French physiologist, 

 Brown- Sequard, described some interesting facts 

 about epilepsy and malformations in guinea pigs 

 that he interpreted as due to the inherited effects of 

 surgical operations. At the time, these experiments 

 aroused great interest, and were much discussed, by 

 zoologists at least. The operations have been re- 

 peated on rather a large scale and offspring ob- 

 tained, but with results so inconclusive that Se- 

 quard's work is largely forgotten, and not often 

 quoted by those who themselves have new^ claims to 

 bring to the attention of the public. 



If we turn now to the experimental evidence of 

 more recent date, we shall find several instances 

 where induced changes have led to deformities and 

 malformations which may "reappear" in the next 

 generation, and hence may be said, in a sense, to be 

 inherited. But the storv they tell leads to a very dif- 

 ferent interpretation from the popular one of the 

 inheritance of acquired character ; and while it is not 

 entirely clear sailing, yet the general trend of the 

 work is instructive and furnishes, I think, more than 

 a hint as to the way in which some of these results 



ft'' 



may have been produced. 



I refer to the experiments of Stockard on the in- 

 fluence of alcohol, of Guyer on the influence of anti- 



