196 THE THEORIES OF EVOLUTION 



cause that made the man one-armed was the knife 

 thrust which severed the lower segment of the arm, 

 and the effect is the absence of that lower segment. 

 This constitutes therefore a character which persists 

 after its cause has disappeared (an acquired character 

 according to Le Dantec's definition) , which, however, 

 remains purely local and is not transmissible. 



Le Dantec argues his way out of the difficulty by 

 saying that the cause of the mutilation is the absence 

 of the bone of the amputated segment and that the 

 effect is the conformation assumed by the fleshy parts 

 of the stump. The cause is therefore as permanent 

 as the effect and the one-armed character is not an 

 acquired character since it does not outlast its cause. 

 It follows logically that it is not transmissible. 



This is a very artificial way of solving the difficulty. 

 The question as to what is the real cause of the infirm- 

 ity, the temporary act of amputating the arm or the 

 permanent absence of the arm is purely academic, and 

 besides, this attempt at demonstrating through logical 

 subtilities the heredity of acquired characters does not 

 bring us nearer the solution of the problem. Let us 

 suppose that Le Dantec's definition is accurate and 

 that no character should be called an acquired char- 

 acter unless it constituted a modification transmissible 

 hereditarily. We are not further advanced thereby 

 and besides, we are now in need of a new term to 

 designate all the characters, inherited or not in- 



