HEREDITY. 



Darwin's 



Theory 



Contradicted. 



Mutilations not 

 Transmitted. 



Acquired Char- 

 acters are 

 Transmitted. 



advocated by Darwin and others, that each an- 

 atomical cell in an organism gives a minute portion 

 of its substance to the germ cell, thus making it 

 a veritable reproduction of the parent organism, 

 is flatly contradicted by the well known fact that 

 in the case of mutilation, such as the loss of a 

 limb, by a parent, the offspring is not affected. 

 On the other hand, there is positive evidence that 

 the psychic nature is pre-eminently potential in 

 the formation of the life germ and that the per- 

 fection of the new life depends, primarily, upon 

 the psychical rather than the physical organism. 

 Observations prove that mutilation of the parent 

 organism does not affect offspring unless it is re- 

 peated a sufficient number of generations to de- 

 stroy the function performed by that part. Thus, 

 if we bob a dog's tail his immediate progeny will 



be no such thing as the transmission of acquired characters 

 in the common acceptation of the term. I cannot share this 

 view, (i) Because it is well known that the character of 

 a life is modified by the character of the food on which it 

 subsists ; therefore, since the germ-plasm is dependent upon 

 the organism in which it lives for its nutriment, it will nec- 

 essarily be modified in strength and character by the tran- 

 sient conditions of the organism. This is not a theory, but 

 a demonstrable fact. Germ-plasm becomes weak or strong 

 according as it is nourished. (2) Since the germ-plasm 

 is, as Weismann says, "an independent life," that life must 

 be continually subject to the psychological influences of the 

 larger life in which it lives ; therefore, the life of the germ- 

 plasm is influenced by the psychical states, mental and moral 

 conditions of the parent. If I am right in these two propo- 

 sitions, and I believe they are self-evident to any thoughtful 

 person, it follows that the transmission of "acquired char- 

 acters" is a possibility, even under the most rigid applica- 

 tion of Weismann's theory. 



