36 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



extermination of the unfriendly, the " friend of man ' 

 has gradually been evolved. 



Paucity of Experimental Evidence of such 

 Transmission. 



Turning now to those cases in which characters can 

 be acquired or experimentally stamped upon an indi- 

 vidual, we find that no single reliable instance can be 

 adduced in which transmission takes place. Mutila- 

 tions have been practised upon male infants by Jews 

 and other Semitic races for thousands of years ; yet, 

 in spite of this, the operation has still to be performed, 

 for the lost parts appear in the offspring of to-day as 

 in the earlier periods of their race's history. Certain 

 breeds of dogs and sheep have for many generations 

 been systematically docked, and yet the young are 

 born with as long tails as those of other breeds. 

 Chinese women have compressed their feet from times 

 long past in their history, yet Chinese female infants 

 are still born with large feet, and have to undergo 

 afresh the torture of their compression. More curious 

 still, for it affects an organ of paramount importance, 

 the brain, there is a tribe of Indians who flatten 

 their heads in early life, entirely changing the shape 

 not only of the skull, but of the brain itself, yet their 

 children are born with normal rounded heads ; the 

 induced change is not transmitted. 



