IV ZIEGLER'S VIEW ANALYSED 187 



With regard to disturbances of the process of copulation 

 itself, it appears, says Ziegier, that, e.g. the simultaneous fer- 

 tilisation of an ovum by two spermatozoa results in a double 

 monster. 



As instances of injurious conditions affecting the sexual 

 nucleus or the fertilised ^g^g, it is pointed out that substances 

 taken up from without — poisons, for example — are brought by 

 the blood to the sexual cells, and others produced in the 

 body are conveyed to the sexual organs. Thus " it seems as 

 if alcohol, for example, might have an injurious effect upon 

 the sexual cells, not merely by destroying the health of the 

 parents, but also directly. 



" If the organism is reduced by suffering or weakened by 

 age, it is probable that some deterioration of the sexual cells 

 may be the consequence, so that their copulation produces 

 badly-developed offspring." 



Here one is reminded of my instance of the inheritance of 

 the signs of old age. I will not go further into the compari- 

 son of the two cases, the special case just mentioned and the 

 general case stated by Ziegier. But the latter by itself 

 seems to me to grant by implication the inheritance of 

 acquired characters, the influence of the condition of the 

 whole body at a given time upon the properties of the 

 germ-cells, — to grant that a reduced condition of body, i.e. 

 a character acquired during life, is inherited by the offspring. 



If, moreover, alcohol can act upon the germ through the 

 blood, and any morbid change in any part of the body can 

 act in like manner, and if such influence can be inherited, 

 then the dependence of the condition of the germ upon that 

 of the whole body, and the possibility of the inheritance of 

 acquired characters, is again fully recognised, and the only 

 difference between our two opposing views is one of words. 

 The assumed importance of double fertilisation in the origin 

 of double monstrosities seems to me to indicate plainly 



