216 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



tolerably certain, in spite of Brown-Sequard's 

 epileptic guinea-pigs which have not carried 

 universal conviction, that mutilations are not 

 inherited; indeed the age-long experiments in 

 circumcision in more than one race and the 

 docking of puppies' tails seem to prove this. Are 

 we equally assured that no acquired charac- 

 teristics are inherited ? Some would have us 

 believe so, and amongst them Weismann in at 

 least his earlier writings. Yet, if this be so, 

 how are we to account for such cases as that 

 Porto ^ ^ e P 01 ^ Santo rabbits ? For a full account 

 Santo of these the reader may be referred to the pages 

 of the book from which I have been quoting 

 above. Here it need only be said that it is 

 historically clear that these rabbits are the 

 descendants of some breed of the ordinary and 

 well-known rabbit introduced on an island 

 where they had neither carnivorous animals 

 nor birds to disturb their breeding some cen- 

 turies ago. Since that tune they have de- 

 veloped into creatures which would be de- 

 scribed as belonging to a totally different 

 species were it not that their history is so 

 well-known ; and most significant fact of all 

 into creatures which will not breed with the 

 ordinary rabbits of Europe from which they 

 are quite undoubtedly descended. All these 

 things we have learnt about heredity, but we 



