WEISMANN'S THEORY OF HEREDITY 73 



something in common, he concludes that 

 camels are really llamas that have recently 

 acquired a hump in the performance of their 

 labors. Lombroso also supported his hump 

 theory by some statements about Hottentot 

 women having developed callouses on their 

 hips by carrying their children on their backs. 

 Unfortunately all Lombroso's ingenuity was 

 wasted for we happen to possess the geolog- 

 ical record of the camel in good condition, and 

 from this history we know that the "ship of 

 the desert" had his hump before the human 

 race appeared when according to Lombroso 

 he should have been a smooth-backed llama. 

 Disappointed as Weismann's critics were it 

 was hardly feasible to argue that the camel 

 had gotten his hump in those early times by 

 placing loads on his own back. 



It was clearly seen that if a case of the 

 transmission of a mutilation could be estab- 

 lished, Weismann's theory would be thereby 

 demolished. A remarkable attempt was made 

 in this direction in 1887 at the meeting of the 

 Association of the German Naturalists at 

 Wiesbaden. To that dignified gathering came 

 Dr. Zacharias with a number of tailless cats. 

 It was asserted that these cats had no tails 

 because their mother had lost her tail through 

 having it run over by a cart wheel. The ex- 



