282 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



Some naturalists, who have committed themselves to a 

 pious belief in what is vaguely called "the transmission 

 of acquired characters," think themselves called upon to 

 support this opinion, in consequence of a notion that their 

 belief would be rendered more reasonable than it is at 

 present were such an origin of feeble-mindedness demon- 

 strated. Apart from the fact that it is not demonstrated, 

 it is difficult to see how, supposing it were, such a causa- 

 tion could be considered as a transmission of an acquired 

 character. The ill-fed, drunken parent of a feeble-minded 

 child (when discovered and examined) is not found to 

 have " acquired " a condition of the brain agreeing with 

 that of his or her feeble-minded offspring, though some- 

 times such parent is found to have been himself or herself 

 born with a defective brain. No theory of organic 

 memory, of engrams, inscripts, or transfer of molecular 

 vibrations can enable us to present a plausible mechanical 

 scheme of the way in which the acquired general condition 

 (restricting ourselves to what is new and acquired) of an 

 ill-fed parent can be definitely and specifically re-embodied 

 in his or her offspring, as the peculiar structural condition 

 of brain which is called " feeble-mindedness." It has not 

 been shown, so far as I am aware, that privation in regard 

 to the food of a parental organism gives rise to new con- 

 genital qualities in the reproductive germs which that 

 organism throws off. 



