A Rejoinder to Dr. Louis Cobbett's 

 Criticism. 



By GEO. P. MUDGE. 



Dr. Cobbett appears to accept WeiS,mann's doctrine 

 that characters acquired during the life of an indi- 

 vidual as the result of external influences are not 

 transmitted to the next generation. Here then we 

 stand upon common ground. But Dr. Cobbett 

 contends that if certain characters need a particular 

 external agent to call them into activity, they will 

 not be rendered manifest in the absence of this agent, 

 even though they exist. Therefore, if civilisation 

 can be made to produce certain conditions, unfavour- 

 able, for instance, to cannibalism and tuberculosis, 

 these qualities and others, though inherently present 

 in individuals, will not be manifested. Similarly, 

 though the capacity for speech is inherent in us, yet 

 it cannot be manifested as speech unless the appro- 

 priate stimuli of education and example are present. 

 Now I cannot help thinking that the argument 

 which rests on cannibalism is exceedingly unfortunate. 

 First, Dr. Cobbett cannot show that every individual 

 in this country possesses the cannibalistic instinct. 

 If it be not present, then of course it cannot be 

 manifested. How many of us are there who want 

 to eat in grim earnest the flesh of our fellows ? 

 Who among us feels an irresistible impulse to first 



