Art and Science 



described them in a very exact and unpre- 

 judiced manner," and that "the fact" (I 

 imagine that Professor Weismann intends 

 " the facts ") " cannot be doubted." 



On a still later page, however, we read : 

 " If, for instance, it could be shown that 

 artificial mutilation spontaneously reappears 

 in the offspring with sufficient frequency to 

 exclude all possibilities of chance, then such 

 proof [i.e., that acquired characters can be 

 transmitted] would be forthcoming. The 

 transmission of mutilations has been fre- 

 quently asserted, and has been even recently 

 again brought forward, but all the supposed 

 instances have broken down when carefully 

 examined " (p. 390). 



Here, then, we are told that proof of the 

 occasional transmission of mutilations would 

 be sufficient to establish the fact, but on p. 267 

 we find that no single fact is known which 

 really proves that acquired characters can be 

 transmitted, "for the ascertained facts which 

 seem to point to the transmission of artificially 

 produced diseases cannot be considered as 



proof" [Italics mine.] Perhaps ; but it was 



295 



