Chap. XII. INHERITANCE. 469 



"That the sciatic nerve in the congenitally toeless animal has 

 inherited the power of passing through all the different morbid states 

 which have ocevirred 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 recorded by Brown-Se- 

 qnard 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. 



With the lower animals Dr. Proper Lucas has collected a 

 long list of inherited injuries. A few instances will suffice. 

 A cow lost a horn from an accident with consequent suppui'- 

 ation, and she produced three calves which were hornless on 

 the same side of the head. With the horse, there seems 

 hardly a doulit that exostoses on the legs, caused by too 

 much travelling on hard roads, are inherited. Blumen- 

 bach records the case of a man who had his little finger on 

 the right hand almost cut oft", and which in consequence 

 grew crooked, and his sons had the same finger on the same 

 hand similarly crooked. A soldier, fifteen years before his 

 marriage, lost his left eye from purulent ophthalmia, and his 

 two sons were microphthalmic on the same side.^^ In all 

 cases in which a parent has had an organ injured on one 

 side, and two or more of the ofispring are born with the 

 same organ affected on the same side, the chances against 

 mere coincidence are almost infinitely great. Even when 

 only a single child is born having exactly the same part of 

 the body affected as that of his injured parent, the chances 

 against coincidence are great; and Professor Kolleston has 

 given me two such cases which have fallen under his own 

 observation, — namel}' of two men, one of whom had his knee 

 and the other his cheek severely cut, and both had children 



*^ This last case is quoted by Mr. ix. p. 323. Some curious cases are 



Sedgwick in 'British and Foreign given by Mr. Baker in the 'Veterinary,' 



Medico-Chirurg. Review,' April, 1861, vol. xiii. p. 723. Another curious 



p. 484. For Blumenbach, see above- case is given in the 'Annales Jes 



cited paper. See, also, Dr. P. Lucas, Scienc. Nat.,' 1st series, torn. xi. p. 



'Traite de I'H^red. Nat.,' torn. ii. p. 324. 

 492. Also, * Transact. Linn. Soc.,' vol. 



