INHERITED MUTILATIONS. 109 



disease in particular being known to be conveyed 

 to offspring in this manner. 



But whether we can discover the true explana- 

 tion or not, inherited mutilations can hardly 

 be accounted for as the result of a general 

 tendency to inherit acquired modifications. 

 How could a factor which seems to be totally 

 inoperative in cases' of ordinary mutilation, and 

 only infinitesimally operative in transmitting the 

 normal effects of use and disuse, suddenly become 

 so powerful as to completely overthrow atavism, 

 and its own tendency to transmit the non- 

 mutilated type of one of the parents and of 

 the non-mutilated type presented by the injured 

 parent in earlier life ? Does not so striking and 

 abrupt an intensification of its usually insignificant 

 power demand an explanation widely different 

 from that which might account for the extremely 

 slow and slight inheritance of the normal effects 

 of use and disuse ? Surely it would be better to 



