16 SSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



induced in guinea-pigs and transmitted to their 

 offspring. He also discusses at some length the 

 botanical arguments in favour of the transmission 

 of acquired characters. Besides this he has recorded 

 his own experiments on white mice, seven females 

 and five males, whose tails were ruthlessly cut off. 

 In five generations of artificially mutilated parents 

 901 young were produced, and there was not a 

 single example either of a rudimentary tail or even 

 of one abnormally short. 



The question of the transmission of special talents 

 is a more difficult one, simply because it is less 

 easy to distinguish between what is innate and 

 what is really acquired : 



" The children of accomplished pianists (as Professor 

 Weismann says) do not inherit the art of playing on the 

 piano ; they have to learn it in the same laborious manner 

 as that by which their parents acquired it ; they do not 

 inherit anything except that which their parents also 

 possessed when children viz., manual dexterity and a good 

 ear." 



All predispositions can no doubt be improved in 

 the course of a lifetime, but the question is whether 

 the improvement can be added to, and handed on 

 with, the predisposition to the next generation. 

 On this point Professor Weismann is quite clear : 



" In my opinion," he says, " there is absolutely no trust- 

 worthy proof that talents have been improved by their exer- 

 cise through the course of a long series of generations. The 

 Bach family shows that musical talent, and the Bernoulli 



