A REMARKABLE ANTICIPATION, ETC. 287 



At this point the writer intercalates another clear state- 

 ment of the essential distinction between inherent hereditary 

 and acquired non-hereditary characters. The statement is 

 so admirable that I quote it in full. 



" We may remark in general that each individual being, 

 through the animal and vegetable worlds, has certain laws 

 of organization impressed upon its original germ ; according 

 to which the future development of its structure is destined 

 to take place. These inbred or spontaneous tendencies, 

 governing the future evolution of the bodily fabric, cause it 

 to assume certain qualities of form and texture at different 

 periods of growth. From these predispositions are derived 

 the characteristic differences, and the peculiarities of indi- 

 vidual beings. Now it appears that such spontaneous 

 tendencies are alone hereditary, and that whatever changes 

 of organization are superinduced by external circumstances, 

 and are foreign to the character of structure impressed upon 

 the original stamina, cease with the individual, and have no 

 influence on the race." 



" Yet this law of hereditary conformation exists with a 

 certain latitude or sphere of variety, but whatever varieties 

 are produced in the race, have their beginning in the original 

 structure of some particular ovum or germ, and not in any 

 qualities superinduced by external causes in the progress of 

 its development." 



These sentences might well have been written to-day, 

 to sum up the results of all our observations on such 

 subjects. These results have been summed up at greater 

 length and in more technical language, but I venture to 

 think that Dr. Prichard's statement contains everything that 

 is valuable and essential in every later attempt. It will be 

 observed that Weismann's conception of inherent characters 

 as blastogenic, acquired as somatogenic, stands out clear 

 and distinct ; furthermore, that the source of individual 

 difference is traced to the germ. 



After these general statements he returns to the question 

 of disease and discusses predisposition. He points out that 

 medical writers have generally believed that any predisposi- 

 tion to disease may arise in any constitution if subjected to 



