INHERITED MUTILATIONS. 103 



Darwin also mentions a cow that lost a horn by 

 accident, followed by suppuration, and subse- 

 quently produced three calves which had on the 

 same side of the head, instead of a horn, a 

 bony lump attached merely to the skin. Such 

 cases may seem to prove that mutilation 

 associated with morbid action is occasionally 

 inherited or repeated with a promptitude and 

 thoroughness that contrast most strikingly with 

 the imperceptible nature of the immediate inherit- 

 ance of the effects of use and disuse ; but they 

 by no means prove that mutilation in general 

 is inheritable, and they are absolutely no proof 

 whatever of a normal and non-pathological ten- 

 dency to the inheritance of acquired characters. 

 Those who accept Darwin's special explanation 



were epileptic, and both were weakly and died early (Weismann's 

 Essays, p. 311). A morbid condition of the spinal cord might affect 

 the hind limbs especially (as in paraplegia) and might occasionally 

 cause loss of toes in the embryo by preventing development or by 

 ulceration. Brown- Sequard does not say that the defective feet 

 were on the same side as in the parents {Lancet, Jan. 1875, pp. 7, 8). 



