ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 169 



just those that are most subject to injury when eggs 

 are treated by many kinds of reagents it appears 

 that the results are general rather than sj^ecific. The 

 organs affected are the most delicate j^arts or the 

 parts that require in their develo23ment the most per- 

 fect adjustments. I am also inclined to favor such a 

 view, which, if established, may explain why alcohol, 

 and X-ravs, and radium show their effects most 

 often in the malformations of the eve. 



The more difficult task remains to attemj^t to ap- 

 praise those results in which a highly specific effect 

 is claimed to have been produced. Guyer's experi- 

 ment easily comes first in this respect. He removed 

 the lenses from the eyes of rabbits, crushed them, and 

 injected the mash into fowls. After a time the blood 

 of these birds was injected into pregnant rabbits. 

 The lenses of the offspring were often opaque and 

 other abnormalities also appeared in their eyes. The 

 effects were transmitted to later generations both in 

 the male and female line. Here we have apparently 

 a straightforward case of specific inheritance, unless, 

 indeed, the injected serum is supposed to have af- 

 fected not only the eves of the embryo but their 

 germ-cells also. Crucial experiments w^ould settle 

 this point, but as yet they have not been forthcom- 

 ing. Guyer's experiment has been recently repeated 

 by Finlev and also by Huxley and Carr- Saunders 

 with entirely nee^ative results. We can safely w^ait, 



