MUTILATIONS AND THE LIKE 225 



like cats and dogs, sheep and horses, which are so often artificially 

 docked. 



Amputations not repeated throughout Generations. — These form 

 what we may call the " curtailed cat " type, the point being that a 

 she-cat whose tail has been cut off accidentally or otherwise has been 

 known to bear kittens, some or all of which have tails shorter than 

 the normal. The cogency of such cases is annulled when we remem- 

 ber, — (1 ) the existence of a Manx and Japanese breed of tail-less cats ; 

 (2) the occasional occurrence of tail-less or short-tailed kittens as 

 " sports " in the litters of quite normal parents ; and (3) the 

 frequently observed variability of the tail region in many mammals. 

 In all such cases at least two inquiries are imperative : ( 1 ) some 

 estimate of the probability of coincidence, since the post hoc may be 

 no propter hoc, but merely a variation which happens to resemble 

 more or less the result of the mutilation ; and (2) an investigation 

 into the pedigree of both parents, since there may be in either or 

 in both an innate tendency towards a shortening of the tail. These 

 inquiries are not usually made. 



A number of very interesting cases are given by Delage (1903), 

 and it is difficult to dispose of them except by calling them " mere 

 coincidences." One of my colleagues has told me of a case of a 

 child with a peculiar bare patch among the hair, corresponding to a 

 similar area on the mother's head, where the bareness was due to 

 ringworm. The child's patch was bare save for a narrow streak 

 of short hair, stretching about half way across. The patch was a 

 little in front of the mother's, but was similarly situated above 

 the left ear. What can one say but " coincidence " ? Or may one 

 suggest that the ringworm found out a hereditarily weak spot ? — 



Wounds repeated Generation after Generation. — We do not aim at 

 any surgical precision in distinguishing amputations from wounds. 

 Our point is simply that there is a difference between the effect 

 of an amputation which may be almost negative, and the effect of 

 a. wound which disturbs the relations of parts. The classification 

 is borne out by the fact that whereas there is not a grain of evidence, 

 so far as we know, to lead one to believe in the inheritance of the 

 results or any results of amputations, except when very important 

 organs are operated upon, the same cannot, at first at least, be said 

 in regard to the effects of wounds. 



The typical case here is the rupture of the hymen in the first 

 sexual intercourse — a trivial lesion, perhaps, but one which has 



15 



