PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 371 



Of course, you all know that just at this point the question 

 arises as to what variations are inherited or are capable of being 

 inherited ? For example, suppose we experimented with mice, 

 shortening their tails, and allowing only short-tailed subjects to 

 breed, should we find that the " acqiiired " character of "short- 

 tailed " appeared in the children, grandchildren, or great grand- 

 children more frequently than might be found in mice at large ? 

 Again, suppose we found a naturally short-tailed mouse, and 

 paired it with another naturally shcrt-tailed mouse, or v/ith a 

 long-tailed one, should we find that the " innate " character of 

 " short-tailed " appeared oftener in the progeny than in mice at 

 large ? Speaking generally, it is the innate characters that are 

 found to be inherited, not the acquired characters. 



Weismann explains this phenomenon of inheritance by a theory 

 01 assumption that when the egg which is to develop into an 

 animal, or into a plant, divides into homogeneous cells, and these 

 in turn divide into heterogeneovis cells, giving rise to the various 

 tissues of the plant or animal, a certain part of the original germ- 

 cell does not go to form these tissues, but remains unchanged in the 

 body of the offspring, and forms, with or without a contribution 

 of a certain amjount of similar m.aterial from another parent, the 

 material out of which the individual of the next generation is 

 formed, and so on. Thus it would appear explicable how acquired 

 characters are not transmitted, since they belong to the fornied 

 body, which gives no contribution to the progeny, and not to the 

 reserved portion, which gives rise to the whole progeny. 



One point must be mentioned. It would appear, from certain 

 experim.ents by Professor Tower and others, that it may be possible 

 by environment so to modify the germ-plasm at a certain stage of 

 the parent's life that the progeny may be unlike the parent in 

 certain innate characters. 



This subject of inherited characters is of prime importance in 

 Anthropology as applied to methods of improving the race or 

 educating the individual in such a way that faults of hereditv 

 may be corrected by education, i.e., the providing of a suitable 

 environment — meaning by environment all physical, intellectual, 

 and moral influences to which the individual may be liable or 

 responsive. 



The question of what determines an innate character, differing 

 either slightly or largely from the previous character, is wliolly 

 v/ithout an ansvver; no one has, as yet, ventured to say why plants 

 and animals never breed true in every minute detail. In fact, 

 the mystery of breeding true seems to be so great — variation is 



not only shown here and there, and now and then, it is universal 



that Thompson suggests that evolutionists will be forced to recognise 

 that variability is, like growth, a prim.ary quality of things, and 



