1 66 Inheritance of Acquired Characters 



nary male ass and bore a female colt which shows the 

 same peculiarity as the mother. Its fat pad which covers 

 the back and reaches almost half way down the ribs is 

 not less than 5 cm. thick, clearly defined, and has an 

 abrupt and perpendicular margin. It is to some extent 

 a distinct and separate fat mass, a true lipoma, cer- 

 tainly similar to those which according to Lombroso's 

 description are produced by burden bearing. It has the 

 same character as the hump of the camel, is more or less 

 developed according to the condition of nutrition of the 

 animal, and appears exactly as though it had arisen by 

 the pressure exerted by a saddle on the back. Also the 

 hair is longer and thicker over the whole of the fat layer, 

 which agrees likewise with the observations of Lom- 

 broso on pack animals possessing such lipomas, and is 

 like the hump of camels also, which is covered with 

 thicker, longer wool. It is worthy of remark that this 

 young she ass has never borne a saddle and inherits its 

 peculiarity entirely from the mother, which proves be- 

 yond doubt, that this peculiarity, acquired by pressure 

 on the back, has been inherited. 134 



Even though this single fact cannot decide the ques- 

 tion finally we do not really see what objection Weismann 

 and his school could urge against it. 



Finally we have the celebrated experiments of Brown 

 Sequard on guinea pigs, proving the transmissibility to 

 the young of effects produced in the parents by certain 

 accidental lesions. 



Thus he has demonstrated that epilepsy, produced in 

 one of the parents by section of the sciatic nerve or of a 

 part of the spinal cord, is transmissible to the young. 



134 Cattaneo : Le gobbe e le callosita dei cammelli etc. P. 9 10. 



