80 GENETICS 



but the fact that their talent is nevertheless an 

 unmistakable gift, and not an acquisition, remains 

 true. 



"Achieved" characters are functional and are 

 gained by exercise. Many things are achieved, 

 however, which are not acquired characters, as, 

 for instance, wealth, reputation, or an education. Not 

 any of these are biological characters, and therefore 

 we are not concerned with them in this connection, 

 although in the case of education it should be noticed 

 that the mental exercise necessary to bring about a 

 trained mind, if not the subject matter of the edu- 

 cation itself, is distinctly an acquired character of 

 the "achieved" type. 



"Thrust" characters are the results of environ- 

 ment. They are acquired without functional activity 

 on the part of the organism and usually in spite of 

 anything the organism can do to prevent. Some- 

 times these characters are thrust upon the individual 

 before birth, as in the case of blindness caused by 

 parental gonorrhoea or tuberculosis arising from 

 uterine infection, in which case they are termed con- 

 genital characters. 



Congenital or prenatal characters, however, are in 

 no way the same as germinal characters, for they fall 

 just as truly into the category of acquired variations 

 as do those which make their appearance in later life. 



8. WHAT VARIATIONS REAPPEAR? 



Returning now to Montgomery's question, "What 

 kinds of acquired characters are inherited?" i 





