114 ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE INHERITED? 



against coincidence are indeed great, but the cases 

 appear to be correspondingly rare. 



Darwin acknowledges that many supposed 

 instances of inherited mutilation may be due 

 to coincidence ; and there is apparently no more 

 reason for attributing inherited scars, &c., to 

 any special form of heredity than to the effect of 

 the mother's imagination on the unborn babe 

 a popular but fallacious belief in corroboration of 

 which far more alleged instances could be collected 

 than of the inheritance of injuries. 



As an instance of the coincidences that occur, 

 I may mention that a friend of mine has a 

 daughter who was born with a small hole in one 

 ear, just as if it were already pierced for the ear- 

 ring which she has since worn in it. I suppose, 

 however, that no one will venture to claim 

 this as an instance of the inheritance of a 

 mutilation practised by female ancestors, especially 

 as such holes are not altogether unknown or 



