BY HEBER A LONGMAN, 25 



pointed out "" that it is not difficult to imagine a mechauisni 

 by which somatogenic characters may gradually be 

 converted into blastogenic ones, and if this is in any way 

 possible, there is no reason why we should den}' the possi- 

 biUty of their inheritance.'"'' And he associates with his 

 remarks experiments which seem to point conclusively 

 "to the inheritance of acquired characters. Although in 

 the great majority of experiments, mutilations are in no 

 way transmitted, yet there are several notable cases which 

 call for comment. Prof, Eugene \V. Hilgard, of the Univer- 

 sity of California, records the case of a cat which sustained 

 a compound fracture of her tail which caused a marked 

 displacement : this peculiarity was noted in some of her 

 offspring, anrl was aggravated by inbreeding and artificial 

 .selection until a race of cats with crooked tails ^\as 

 established, t The ecaudate condition of the famous 

 Manxian felines has somehow to he accounted for, and it 

 is rather difficult to imagine how such a trait could be 

 of a strictly blastogenic origin. Several cases of transmitted 

 deformities (caused by accidents) in human beings have 

 been placed on record, but space forbids their recapitulation 

 here. Apparently, there is no hard and fast criterion 

 as to the susceptibility of organs, or organisms, and, whilst 

 the majority are ri^id. some are easily perturbed. 



G. Archdall Reid claims that no logical distinction 

 can be made between " acquired " and " inborn " 

 characteristics. He asserts that there are invariably two 

 factors concerned in all development — nature and nurture, 

 and that all the individual inherits is a bundle of potentialities 

 to grow this way and that in response to this stimulus 

 or that. "■ His nature is the sum of his potentialities ; 

 his nurture is the sum of the influences that play on him, 



and convert his potentialities into actualities 



if any character is an acquirement, all characters are 

 acquirements. "J So states the Chesterton of modern 

 science. 



A brief review of literature dealing with the Mendelian 

 theorj^ also shows the incongruity of trying to establish 



*" (Jutlines of Evolutionary Biolotry," p. 404. 



t Vid"- Cope, ■' Primary Factors of Oruanic Ev.plution," p. 4.32 (ISOii). 



I" Bedrock," January, 1914. 



