88 ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE INHERITED? 



few years of its life, at least, the labourer's infant 

 does no more work than the gentleman's child. 

 Why are not the effects of this disuse inherited 

 by the labourer's infant ? ;If the enlargement of the 

 infant's hand illustrates the transference of a 

 character gained later in life, it is evident that the 

 transference must take place in spite of the inherited 

 effects of disuse. 



THICKENED SOLE IN INFANTS. 



Darwin also attributes the thickened sole in in- 

 fants, "long before birth," to " the inherited effects 

 of pressure during a long series of generations." l 

 But disuse should make the infant's sole thin, and 

 it is this thinness that should be inherited. If we 

 suppose the inheritance of the thickened soles of 

 later life to be transferred to an earlier period, we 

 have the anomaly of the inherited effects of disuse 



1 Descent of Man, p. 33. 



