104 ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE INHERITED? 



of the supposed inheritance of mutilations, ought 

 to notice that his explanation applies equally well 

 under a theory which is strongly adverse to 

 use-inheritance namely, Galton's idea of the 

 sterilization and complete " using up " of other- 

 wise reproductive matter in the growth and 

 maintenance of the personal structure. 



Darwin's explanation of inherited mutilations 

 which, as he notes, occur " especially or perhaps 

 exclusively " when the injury has been followed 

 by disease 1 is that all the representative 

 gemmules which would develop or repair or 

 reproduce the injured part are attracted to the 

 diseased surface during the reparative process 

 and are there destroyed by the morbid action. 2 



1 Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, ii. 



57- 



2 Ibid. ii. 392. Perhaps it might be better to suppose that the 

 best gemmules were sacrificed in repairing the injured nerve, and 

 hence only inferior substitutes were left to take their place, and 

 could only imperfectly reproduce the injured part of the nervous 

 system in offspring. 



