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characteristics has not yet been satisfactorily answered. 

 All the cases relied upon by the Spencerites have 

 been found on investigation to be open to doubt, while 

 there is a formidable mass of facts opposed to their view. 

 It is not found, for example, that a man who has had his 

 leg cut off engenders legless children, or that circumcision, 

 although practised for thousands of years among the Jews, 

 leaves any congenital trace. If anybody can bring 

 forward indisputable proof of some acquired characteristic 

 in a parent being transmitted to children, he will render 

 the Spencerites an enormous service. 



1 Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose whole system of philosophy 

 is at stake, is practically cornered for want of such proofs. 

 What he relies upon mainly is the allegation that a woman 

 who has had a child by one husband occasionally bears to 

 a second husband a child resembling the first. It is a 

 matter of common belief in the United States that if a 

 white woman has had a child by a negro and then 

 marries a white man, the children of the second marriage 

 will show traces of negro blood. Among breeders of 

 animals, also, there is a prevailing idea that if, say, a pure- 

 blooded mare or bitch has once been allied to an inferior 

 male, it is a matter of uncertainty to get back to the pure 

 strain afterwards. If absolute proof of this could be found, 

 a serious blow would be struck at the theory of Weismann, 

 whose contention is that the germ-plasm is transmitted 

 intact from generation to generation, secure from all out- 

 ward contamination. 



' The famous case of the quagga is mentioned in nearly 

 all works on heredity. It is the classical case of the 

 Spencerites. Its authenticity, however, is disputed by 

 Weismann. The quagga, as you know, is a spotted ass of 

 Africa ; and it is alleged that a mare, having been covered 

 by a quagga on one occasion, had a foal some years 

 afterwards bearing the characteristic marks of the inter- 

 loper. Such is the case as recorded. At the Royal 

 College of Surgeons there is exhibited a drawing of the 

 foal said to be marked like the quagga, and the animal 

 does show certain indistinct dark stripes on the neck and 

 legs. Such stripes, however, according to Weismann, are 

 not very uncommon in pure bred-foals. In fact, he alleges 

 that in all such cases there is room for doubt as to the 

 exclusiveness of the breed ; and it is possible that certain 



