AFFIRMATIVE ANSWER 193 



the third degree of directness. It might be an illustration of the 

 inheritance of an indirect effect of a parental modification if 

 the sons of fathers who had eaten sour grapes had wry necks. 

 But we should require many instances before admitting the 

 hereditary nexus. 



§ 6. The Widespread Opinion in favour of Affirmative Answer 



It seems to be a widespread opinion that acquired characters 

 may be transmitted, but often the opinion wavers when it is 

 explained what this precisely means — namely, that a modification 

 in the body, brought about by a change in function or environ- 

 ment, may so specifically affect the reproductive elements that 

 when these develop there is in the offspring something corre- 

 sponding to the parental modification. 



Opinion of " Practical Men." — In fairness we must admit that 

 the verdict of the practical man, whether physician or breeder, 

 gardener or farmer, is still in many cases an unhesitatingly 

 affirmative answer. One of the keenest of physicians has said 

 that a few months in practice would dispel all doubt as to 

 the inheritance of acquired characters ; but there are equally 

 keen physicians who have taken a different view. It may 

 also be that the first had not freed himself from Misunder- 

 standings V and VII. 



Prof. Brewer, an American authority on breeding, who 

 gives an emphatic affirmative answer, notes : 



" The art of breeding has become in a measure an applied 

 science ; the enormous economic interests involved stimulate 

 observation and study, and what is the practical result ? This 

 ten years of active promulgation of the new theory has not resulted 

 in the conversion of a single known breeder to the extent of inducing 

 him to conform his methods and practice to the theory. My 

 conclusion is that they are essentially right in their deductions 

 founded on their experience and observations — namely, that ac- 



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