319 
But to suppose that it would when immature inherit its father’s 
mature talent is as irrational as to expect it to exhibit the beard 
at that age. 
On the other hand, here is a case of the inheritance of an 
acquired character. The wearing of boots has resulted in the 
crumpling of the smaller toes—particularly the little toe—in a 
curved manner, so that they grow somewhat over one another. 
This feature is now very common—most people shew it more 
or less; and it can only have been acquired since compression 
was applied. As this compressing begins very early in life—as 
soon as the child wears boots—it would not be surprising if— 
allowing for earlier inheritance—the infant were born with toes 
of this shape. In none of my children was this the case: their 
feet were always extremely broad across the toes, which were 
all perfectly straight. About six months after birth, however, 
a very distinct change began to be apparent—the curling up 
of the little toe became noticeable. One of my children 
went without shoes or boots for 18 months after birth; and 
though running about on his bare feet would tend to spread the 
toes, yet the force of heredity was too strong—they assumed 
the curled up position, though not quite to the same extent as if 
he had worn boots. 
Having always learnt from Darwin’s works that such 
characters were inherited, I had taken no exact record of this 
case, but on mentioning the fact to Professor Harker I learnt its 
importance. We could not then refer to this child, as he had 
just taken to boots; and although it might be safely asserted 
that boots would not have produced such an effect in the time 
if no such character had been inherited from the parent, yet the 
negative was open to sceptics. Fortunately, however, there 
was the baby, which had never worn boots: she was then 
seven months old. For some time after birth her toes were 
remarkably -straight,* but at the age mentioned the curling 
* I can be very positive on this point, having noticed it, not only in her, but 
in all my children; besides, most of the movements of toes, etc., detailed in the 
early part of this paper were obtained by continued watching of her feet, though 
the other children had also received much attention in the baby-stage. 
