INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 99 



turbances within the uterus, caused, perhaps, in the last 

 instance by the abnormal condition of the mother. We 

 have to guard against the mistake of holding without 

 further inquiry every character to be inherited, merely 

 because it is congenital, as we may thus be led to reason 

 from a false assumption. 



(d) Germinal Variations. 



There is a series of phenomena which at a first glance 

 seems to lend strong support to the contention that acquired 

 characters are inherited. In these cases we find characters 

 which are certainly inherited. But, though they may easily 

 be taken as somatic modifications, and are generally ex- 

 plained as such, yet it is possible to put another interpre- 

 tation on them. 



Instances of this sort are found in certain habits of 

 plants and domesticated animals. Thus, the Golden Rod 

 (Solidago virgaurea) flowers earlier in the Alps than in the 

 Lowlands, and retains this precocity even when trans- 

 planted to lower regions. This has been claimed as a proof 

 for the inheritance of acquired characters. It may well be, 

 however, that the precocity of the Alpine plant is not an 

 acquirement at all, but has become established in the Alps 

 as a germinal variation through natural selection. Simi- 

 larl}^ the sporting instincts of dogs have been adduced to 

 show that the effects of use are inherited. For it has been 

 found that young dogs are born with traits their parents 

 acquired, and that these traits can be intensified in suc- 

 cessive generations. But even here matters are not quite 

 so simple as they at first appear. In the first instance, only 

 certain breeds of dogs are fit for definite domestic purposes, 

 showing that there is an innate disposition in the different 

 breeds of dogs for certain kinds of training, which, of course, 

 can be improved in each individual by constant practice. 

 These sporting qualities, being natural variations in certain 

 breeds of dogs, and being merely directed towards certain 



