68 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



and are often characteristic of the stock, as in certain races of 

 cats in Japan and the Isle of Man. In the fourth place, the 

 experience of animal breeders in general is wholly adverse to a 

 belief in the transmission of acquired mutilations. The tail of 

 the female in certain races of sheep is invariably cut ofE for 

 breeding purposes, but no result of this artificial mutilation is 

 ever transmitted. 



Turning from the cases of somatic mutilation, we come to 

 those of acquired and transmissible diseases. It is in the domain 

 of pathology that Weismann's theory encounters most opposi- 

 tion. We believe, however, that this opposition is based on a 

 misconception. It is frequently alleged — chiefly, indeed, by 

 writers who appear to be unacquainted with Weismann's works 

 — that Weismann and his school deny the fact of heredity.^ 

 This is, indeed, an astounding misrepresentation. As if any 

 biologist at the present day could deny that patent and obvious 

 fact if he would ! A mathematician might as well deny that 

 2 + 2=4; an astronomer might as well deny the law of 

 gravitation. It is needless to refute this misrepresentation. 

 Weismann calls in question the heredity of acquired characters 

 which are purely somatic in their origin. He has, of course, 

 never questioned the heredity of those fundamental characters 

 which affect the germ-plasm, and without which organic life 

 as we know it would not only be non-existent, but unthink- 

 able. 



But those who contest the accuracy of Weismann's theory 

 have often objected that certain characteristics which are un- 

 doubtedly acquired are nevertheless hereditarily transmitted. 



^ A distingmshed physician has told us in conversation that " the 

 medical ■world are unable to accept Weismann's conclusions on heredity, 

 as it is evident to medical science that numerous diseases are trans- 

 missible," and he pointed to the hereditary transmission of syphilis as 

 notably contradicting the views of Weismann. If such be the ideas of 

 a man of science, it is not surprising that the laity should have a false con- 

 ception of the doctrine of the Neo-Darwinian school. 



