Art and Science 



a still more interesting fact, * that the sciatic 

 nerve in the congenitally toeless animal has 

 inherited the power of passing through all the 

 different morbid states which have occurred 

 in one of its parents from the time of the 

 division till after its reunion with the peripheric 

 end. It is not, therefore, simply the power 

 of performing an action which is inherited, but 

 the power of performing a whole series of 

 actions, in a certain order.' 



" In most of the cases of inheritance re- 

 corded by Brown- Sequard only one of the 

 two parents had been operated upon and was 

 affected. He concludes by expressing his 

 belief that * what is transmitted is the morbid 

 state of the nervous system,' due to the 

 operation performed on the parents." 



Mr. Darwin proceeds to give other instances 

 of inherited effects of mutilations : 



" With the horse there seems hardly a 

 doubt that exostoses on the legs, caused 

 by too much travelling on hard roads, are 

 inherited. Blumenbach records the case of a 

 man who had his little finger on the right 



hand almost cut off, and which in consequence 



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