3^0 SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION [V. 



change which was the cause of epilepsy had been produced by 

 the nervous lesion, and if a similar change had re-appeared in 

 the offspring, and had produced in them also the symptoms of 

 epilepsy. But that this really occurs is utterly unproved ; and 

 is even highly improbable. It has only been proved that many 

 descendants of artificially epileptic parents are small, weakly, 

 and very soon die ; and that others are paralysed in various 

 parts of the body, i.e. in one or both of the posterior or anterior 

 extremities ; w^hile others again exhibit trophic paralysis of the 

 cornea leading to inflammation and the formation of pus. In 

 addition to these symptoms, the descendants in very rare cases 

 exhibit upon the application of certain stimuli to the skin, a 

 tendency towards those tonic and clonic convulsions together 

 with loss of consciousness which constitute the features of an 

 epileptic attack. Out of thirty-two descendants of epileptic 

 parents only two exhibited such symptoms, both of them being 

 very weakly, and dying at an early age. 



These experiments, although very interesting, do not enable 

 us to assert that a distinct morphological change is transmitted 

 to the offspring after having been artificially induced in the 

 parents. The injury caused by the division of a nerve is not 

 transmitted, and the part of the brain corresponding to that 

 which was removed from the parent is not absent from the 

 offspring. The symptoms of a disease are undoubtedly trans- 

 mitted, but the cause of the disease in the offspring is the real 

 question which requires solution. The symptoms of epilepsy 

 are by no means invariably transmitted ; they are in fact absent 

 from the great majority of cases, and the very small proportion 

 in which they do occur, exhibit the symptoms of other diseases 

 in addition to those of epilepsy. The offspring are either quite 

 healthy (thirteen out of thirty cases) or they suffer from dis- 

 turbances of the nerv'ous system, such as the above-mentioned 

 motor and trophic paralysis, — symptoms which are not charac- 

 teristic of epilepsy : however in some of the latter epilepsy is 

 also present. 



If therefore we wish to express the matter correctly we must 

 not state that epilepsy is transmitted to the offspring, but we 

 must express the facts in the following manner : — animals 

 which have been rendered epileptic by artificial means, trans- 

 mit to some of their offspring a tendency to suffer from various 



