LARGE AND SMALL HANDS 209 



We can only say that this line of inquiry deserves to be 

 followed up, especially since our minute acquaintance with the 

 human body and the accumulation of facts in regard to its varia- 

 tions make a discrimination between modification and variation 

 more secure than is possible in many other cases. It should be 

 remembered, however, that if the shoemaker's sons and grandsons 

 and subsequent descendants all " stuck to the last," there might 

 tend to be an accumulation of general constitutional peculiarities 

 e.g. of meditativeness and of the physical effects of persistent 

 sedentary work, which might dispose the organism to re-acquire 

 particular modifications in a more marked degree. 



Large and Small Hands. Darwin (Descent of Man, p. 18) refers 

 to the alleged fact that the infants of labourers have larger hands 

 than those of the children of the gentry ; but this, and many 

 similar cases of which it is a type, may be sufficiently accounted 

 for by interpreting the observed differences as constitutional char- 

 acteristics of different stocks probably accentuated by various 

 forms of selection. Spencer notes, " That large hands are in- 

 herited by those whose ancestors led laborious lives, and that 

 those descended from ancestors unused to manual labour com- 

 monly have small hands, are established opinions." But if we 

 accept the " opinions " as correct, it is easy to interpret the size of 

 the hands as a stock character correlated with different degrees of 

 muscularity and vigour, and established by selection. The hands 

 of Japanese are in many details anatomically different from the 

 hands of Europeans, but there is no warrant for regarding these 

 detailed differences as other than constitutional racial differences 

 of germinal origin accentuated modificationally in the individual 

 lifetime. 



Dwindling of Little Toe. The alleged dwindling of the little 

 toe has been repeatedly cited as a case in point proving the 

 inheritance of a modification produced by tight boots. But 

 precise data are wanting ; a dwindling has also been observed 

 in savages who do not wear boots ; it is possible that there may 



