Characters, Hereditary and Acquired. 109 



might be some room for supposing that its trans- 

 mission is due to a congenital tendency running 

 through the whole species — although even then it 

 would remain unaccountable, on the ultra-Darwinian 

 view, why this tendency should be congenitally 

 increased by means of an operation. But epilepsy 

 does not originate spontaneously in guinea-pigs ; 

 and therefore the criticism in question appears to me 

 irrelevant. 



Again, it may be worth while to remark that 

 Browii-S^quard's experiments do not disprove the 

 possibility of its being some one nerve-centre which 

 is concerned in all cases of traumatic epilepsy. And 

 this possibility becomes, I think, a probability in view 

 of Luciani's recent experiments on the dog. These 

 show that the epileptic condition can be produced 

 in this animal by injury to the cortical substance 

 of the hemispheres, and is then transmitted to pro- 

 geny*. These, experiments, therefore, are of great 

 interest — first, as showing that traumatic and trans- 

 missible epilepsy is not confined to guinea-pigs ; 

 and next, as indicating that the pathological state 

 in question is associated with the highest nerve- 

 centres, which may therefore well be affected by 

 injury to the lower centres, or even by section of a 

 large nerve trunk. 



So much, then, with regard to the case of trans- 

 mitted, epilepsy. But now it must be noted that, 

 even if Weismann's suggestion touching microbes 

 were fully adequate to meet this case, it would still 

 leave unaffected those of transmitted protrusion of 

 the eye, drooping of the eyelid, gangrene of the 



' Les fonctions du Cerveau, p. 102. 



