THE INHERITANCE OF ACQUIREMENTS 70 



environment alVects it in any way — stamps any 

 character upon it, we speak nonsense if we cl<3clarc 

 such a character to be a tiansinitted ac([uirement. 

 Pray let us observe clearly this distinction. If the 

 mother's body, before conception, affects, in its role 

 of environment, the female gamete, in such a fashion 

 as to stamp upon it a character previously acquired 

 by the mother, then this gamete, uniting with a 

 male gamete and giving rise to a new individual, 

 may certainly transmit to it a character acquired by 

 the mother. Such a character is germuial or truly 

 innate; for the coming into existence of any indi- 

 vidual — its birth as a new individual — coincides with 

 the conjugation of the gametes from which it is 

 formed. The characters they confer upon it are 

 inherited, in the proper sense, and a character ac- 

 quired by the mother and reflected in her germ- 

 cells, would thus be transmitted to her child. The 

 mother's acquirement appears as a variation in her 

 offspring. This case is fundamentally distinct from 

 the impression of any character upon the embryonic 

 but, nevertheless, distinct offspring during its de- 

 velopment in the body of its mother. vSuch a 

 character may be present at birth, but it is never- 

 theless not a variation but an acquirement. Plainly 

 an acquirement is an acquirement whether it be ac;- 

 quired five minutes or months before, or five minutes 

 or months after, the change of environment which 

 we call birth. 



Hence it is evident that the alleged results of 

 maternal impressions — as when a child is born with 

 a withered limb resembling one the sight of which 

 had powerfully impressed the mother before lior 



