SEX AND THE INDIVIDUAL 203 



that these are not examples of the transmission of 

 specific acquired physical characters, but only of a 

 general nutritional effect exerted through the food 

 supplies of the blood. 



Nor is there any evidence that acquired mental 

 characters are transmitted. It is discouraging to 

 think that children receive no benefit from the cul- 

 ture gained by their parents as the result of long- 

 continued deliberate effort. It is not safe to say 

 that the germ plasm cannot be influenced in any way 

 through mental effort, but it is safe to say that there 

 are at present no indications of such influence. A 

 great many examples have been cited to prove that 

 maternal impressions during pregnancy have had a 

 definite effect on the offspring, but none of these 

 can be said to be good evidence for an affect exerted 

 through the nervous system of the mother. It 

 seems that the germ cells are not influenced in recog- 

 nizable ways by the action of the nervous system of 

 the parents. The realization that this is so tends 

 to emphasize a fatalistic attitude toward life. If a 

 parent can transmit only those qualities to his off- 

 spring that have been predetermined in his germ 

 plasma, there appears to be little inducement to self- 

 betterment in so far as it may affect the offspring 

 favorably. 



But a fatalism so grounded is no legitimate cause 

 for discouragement. The fact that we cannot detect 

 in the offspring any results of acquired mental char- 

 acters is not positive proof that no effect whatever is 



