PECULIARITIES OF OCCUPATIONS 209 



proof (Misunderstanding III). They may be adaptations origina- 

 ting in germinal variations. It is necessary to know whether the 

 peculiarities are in any degree represented on new-born Punjabi 

 babies, but even then it would be simpler to regard them as 

 variations than as transmitted modifications. There can be 

 no conclusiveness in regard to peculiarities whose first appearance 

 is hidden in obscurity. If squatting increased from generation to 

 generation, and if the structural peculiarities increased pari passu, 

 the case would be interesting ; but even then we should have to 

 inquire whether we were not dealing with a progressive variation. 



Peculiarities of Occupations. — In his interesting paper on 

 the anatomy of the shoemaker, Dr. Arbuthnot Lane describes 

 the peculiarities induced by this occupation, which tends to 

 form a distinct anatomical type. The same is true of the tailor. 

 " The bent form, the crossed legs, thumb- and-forefinger action, and 

 peculiar jerk of the head while drawing the thread, are the main 

 features of the sartorial habit," and they are associated with 

 permanent changes in muscles, insertion surfaces, and articula- 

 tions. These are indubitable modifications : what of their 

 transmission ? No one, Dr. Lane says, would expect any per- 

 ceptible changes in the first generation, but he thinks that he 

 has observed inherited effects in the third. 



We can only say that this line of inquiry deserves to be 

 followed up, especially since our minute acquaintance with the 

 human body and the accumulation of facts in regard to its 

 variations make a discrimination between modification and 

 variation more secure than is possible in many other cases. It 

 should be remembered, however, that if the shoemaker's sons 

 and grandsons aind subsequent descendants all " stuck to the 

 last," there might tend to be an accumulation of general 

 constitutional peculiarities — e.g. of meditativeness and of the 

 physical effects of persistent sedentary work, which might dispose 

 the organism to re-acquire particular modifications in a more 

 marked degree. 



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