1 86 LIFE AND HABIT. 



pruned of detail, and remembered as by one who 

 has had a host of other matters to attend to in the 

 interim. 



It is thus easy to understand why such a rite as cir- 

 cumcision, though practised during many ages, should 

 have produced little, if any, modification tending to 

 make circumcision unnecessary. On the view here sup- 

 ported such modification would be more surprising than 

 not, for unless the impression made upon the parent was 

 of a grave character and probably unless also aggra- 

 vated by subsequent confusion of memories in the cells 

 surrounding the part originally impressed the parent 

 himself would not be sufficiently impressed to prevent 

 him from reproducing himself, as he had already done 

 upon an infinite number of past occasions. The child, 

 therefore, in the womb would do what the father in the 

 womb had done before him, nor should any trace of 

 memory concerning circumcision be expected till the 

 eighth day after birth, when, but for the fact that the 

 impression in this case is forgotten almost as soon as 

 made, some slight presentiment of coming discomfort 

 might, after a large number of generations, perhaps be 

 looked for as a general rule. It would not, however, 

 be surprising, that the effect of circumcision should be 

 occasionally inherited, and it would appear as though 

 this was sometimes actually the case. 



The question should turn upon whether the disuse 

 of an organ has arisen : 



I. From an internal desire on the part of the crea- 

 ture disusing it, to be quit of an organ which it finds 

 troublesome. 



