358 MENDEL'S LAWS 



up their feet to keep them small. But if any one in the 

 series does not have her feet bound they are not small. 

 Clearly this sort of an acquired character is not inherited. 

 But if a trained trotting horse begets other fast trotters it 

 is often popularly supposed that they have inherited the 

 effects of the parent's training. It is far more probable, 

 however, that they have merely inherited a similar ability 

 to be trained. In any event. the biologist has not yet, 

 notwithstanding long-continued and painstaking experi- 

 mentation, been able to produce any results which are 

 not readily explicable either on the basis of the chromo- 

 some mechanism or on some organ or substance contained 

 in the cytoplasm of the egg. Certain facts are, however, 

 known about the structure and metabolism of cells which 

 might offer an explanation in the event that the in- 

 heritance of a genuine acquired character should ever 

 be established. 



