102 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



of modifications was perhaps expressed in the old Hebraic 

 proverb : " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and 

 the children's teeth are set on edge " — a proverb which 

 the prophet Ezekiel with great solemnity said was not 

 to be used any more in Israel (Ezek. xviii. 2). Now, if 

 *' setting on edge " was a structural modification, and 

 if the children's teeth were " set on edge " because of 

 what had happened to their fathers in direct consequence 

 of eating sour grapes, there would have been a presump- 

 tion in favour of a belief in the transmission of this 

 acquired character. It would still be necessary, however, 

 to be very careful in our conclusion, — to inquire, for 

 instance, whether the children had not been in the vine- 

 yard too. If, as Romanes said, the children were born 

 with wry necks, we should perhaps have to deal with 

 an indirect result of the parental indiscretion, and not 

 with any direct representation in the inheritance of 

 that particular modification which was produced in the 

 parents as the direct result of eating sour grapes. 



To come down to very concrete cases, peculiarities 

 like rickets, enlarged heart, eye-strain, are modifica- 

 tions, dints or imprints due to peculiarities of environ- 

 ment, nutrition, use and disuse, and the trend of the 

 evidence is certainly towards the conclusion that they 

 will not be transmitted. 



Parable of the Peach Trees. — The French biologist 

 Bordage made careful observations on south European 

 peach trees which had been transported to Reunion in 

 the West Indies. As has been noticed in similar cases, 

 they became evergreen, — it took some of them twenty 



