THE SUPPOSED TRANSMISSION OF MUTILATIONS. 447 



sheep broke its right fore-leg 1 , about two inches above the knee- 

 joint ; the limb was put in splints and healed a long- time before 

 the following- March, when the animal produced young-. The 

 lamb possessed a ring- of black wool from two to three inches in 

 breadth round the place at which the mother's leg- had been broken, 

 and upon the same leg-.' Now if we even admitted that a ring of 

 black wool could be looked upon as a character which corresponds 

 to the fracture of the mother's leg-, the case could not possibly be 

 interpreted as the transmission of a mutilation, but as an instance 

 of the efficacy of maternal impressions ; for the ewe was already 

 pregnant when she fractured her leg. The present state of bio- 

 logical science teaches us that, with the fusion of egg and sperm- 

 cell, potential heredity is determined 1 . Such fusion determines the 

 future fate of the egg-cell and the individual with all its various 

 tendencies. 



Such tales, when quoted as ' remarkable facts which prove the 

 transmission of mutilations,' thoroughly deserve the contempt with 

 which they have been received by Kant and His. When the 

 above-mentioned instance was told me, I replied, ' It is a pity that 

 the black wool was not arranged in the form of the inscription " To 

 the memory of the fractured leg of my dear mother." ' 



The tales of the efficacy of ' maternal impressions ' and of the 

 transmission of mutilations are closely connected, and break down 

 before the present state of biological science. No one can be pre- 

 vented from believing such things, but they have no right to be 

 looked upon as scientific facts or even as scientific questions. The 

 first was abandoned in the middle of the present century, and the 

 second may be given up now ; when once discarded we need not 

 fear that it will ever again be resuscitated. 



It is hardly necessary to say that the question as to the trans- 

 mission of acquired characters is not completely decided by the un- 

 conditional rejection of the transmission of mutilations. Although 

 I am of opinion that such transmission does not take place, and that 

 we can explain the phenomena presented by the transformation of 

 species without this supposition, I am far from believing that the 

 question is settled, simply because the transmission of mutilations 

 may be dismissed into the domain of fable. But at all events we 

 have gained this much, that the only facts which appear to directly 

 1 See V. Hensen, 'Physiologic der Zeugung.' Leipzig, 1881. 



