TRANSMISSION OF CHARACTER 195 



ductive elements and consequently affects the future 

 progeny. An acquired modification is, so to speak, 

 "included in the patrimony" and consequently trans- 

 mitted to the next generation. 



How can we, however, account for the fact that 

 some acquired modifications, purely local, such as 

 mutilations, are not transmissible? Le Dantec over- 

 comes the difficulty in the following way: "Let us 

 suppose that a man has lost one arm. As no acquired 

 character could be purely local, what determines the 

 new form assumed by the organism after the ablation 

 of the arm, is not the ablation itself, but the form 

 assumed by the skeleton. This form is permanent. 

 If being one-armed is a local character, it is not an 

 acquired character according to our definition. We 

 call acquired character a character determined by the 

 direct influence of a cause located outside of the in- 

 dividual, and which persists after the cause has ceased 

 to exert its influence. In the case of the maimed 

 individual the cause of his mutilation endures; it is 

 the ablation of the arm bones. We cannot say there- 

 fore that when he lost one arm the man acquired a 

 local character. In other words we cannot admit 

 that a character has been really acquired unless it is 

 included in the patrimony, unless it is transmissible." 



Le Dantec's view of the matter differs widely from 

 the accepted view. To the majority of people, the 



3Le Dantec, L'unitS dans Vetre vivant, 1902, pp. 57-64, 



I 



