1892.] Elmot, /n/zeriiance nf Acquired C/iarac/ern. QC 



change in the molecular structure of the germ-cells, and could 

 not therefore produce any effect upon the offspring. This, how- 

 ever, does not seem to be a proper illustration of the subject, for 

 the son of a pianist, even if capable, might not choose to become 

 a pianist, and although the muscles his parent developed, might, 

 if exercised, easily acquire an equal power to them, more easily 

 proljably than the offspring of a parent who had not so developed 

 them, yet if disused they would remain in an only partially devel- 

 loped condition. Such may also be the answer to the similar 

 illustration of Mr. Dyer,* of the blacksmith and his muscular 

 arms. It does not follow that the son of a blacksmith must, or 

 will, himself be a blacksmith ; and until this acquired develop- 

 ment has been observed in a line of blacksmiths descending from 

 father to son for generations, it would be impossible to ascertain 

 whether the abnormal muscular develojoment could be transmit- 

 ted or not. In this connection it may be stated that Mr. Arbnth- 

 not Lane (as quoted by Lloyd Morgan)! has shown that certain 

 occu^^ations, such as shoe-making, coal-heaving, etc., produce 

 recognizable effects upon the skeleton, the muscular system, and 

 other parts of the organization. And he believes that such effects 

 are inherited, being very much more marked in the third genera- 

 tion than they were in the first. And it might also be pointed 

 out that the extreme development of the thigh muscles in the Os- 

 trich is continued from parent to offspring, and although this is 

 now an inherited character through long periods of time, it must 

 have been at one stage of the Inrd's existence a character acquired 

 from use, and its unusual development began when the wings 

 became modified and its changed habits caused the individual to 

 rely for defence and safety more upon its legs. 



We may therefore say with Prof. Elmer that "every character 

 which must have been formed through the activity of the organ- 

 ism, is an acquired character. All characters, therefore, which 

 have been developed by exertion are acquired, and these charac- 

 ters are inherited from generation to generation. The same holds 

 for all organs atrophied through disuse — the degree of atrophy 

 is acquired and inherited. In the first class we see especially the 



♦Nature, XLI, 1890, p. 247. 

 +Anim. Life and Intell. p. 169. 

 JOrganic Evolution, p. 86. 



