II CORRELATION OF SEXUAL ORGANS 43 



condition of the whole body. This relation is so well known 

 that it is unnecessary for me here to give any proof of it. 

 But it is at the same time one of the most striking examples 

 of correlation, and certainly affords most valuable support to 

 my conclusion that changes in the characters of the body 

 appearing suddenly through correlative growth may lead 

 to the formation of new species without the assistance of 

 selection. 



Finally, some importance is to be attached, as supporting 

 my conclusions in opposition to Weismann's, to the evidence 

 which tends to prove that not only the bodily, but the mental, 

 condition of the parents at the moment of procreation has an 

 influence on the offspring. This evidence is so abundant and 

 comes from so many sides, that it will be difficult to doubt at 

 least its partial trustworthiness.-^ But if it is really based on 

 fact, a further important proof is afforded of the inheritance 

 of acquired characters, and of course also of the part played 

 by sexual combination in the alteration of the characters of 

 living beings. But it is sufficiently evident from the fore- 

 going that I place a high value on the latter influence. The 

 divergence of my interpretation from that of Weismann con- 

 sists only in this, that the latter pronounces natural selection 

 to be the indispensable handmaid of sexual combination in 

 the transformation of species ; whilst I, although recognising in 

 the present work and always the importance of selection, 



^ In tills connection may be mentioned the fact that, according to the belief 

 of breeders, a pure-bred mare or bitch if only once covered by a worthless male is 

 spoilt for all subsequent breeding — indeed, it is asserted that such females 

 subsequently, even when they were covered by thorough -bred males, produced 

 young which possessed characters of the mongrel with whom they had once 

 bred. (Probably this is essentially a case of nervous influence [trophic nerves].) 

 Compare my later observations on the influence of the age of the parents on the 

 off"spring. It is generally asserted that procreation during drunkenness causes 

 inferiority of mental powers or even idiocy in the child — in this case general 

 influences of nourishment are the probable explanation. Compare with resjDect 

 to the importance for the off"spring of the condition of the parents during pro- 

 creation, A. de Candolle, op. cit. p. 49, et seq. , and the literature there referred to. 



