166 HEKEDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



recorded several times, and Fere inclines to the belief that this is due to 

 the transmission of an abnormal anatomical peculiarity. The inheritance 

 of arthritism is, according to some authorities, referable to a predisposition 

 to proliferation on the part of the connective tissue, combined with greater 

 irritability, which renders the tissue less capable of resisting. Gigantism 

 may also be hereditary. Hypospadism, abnormalities of the testicle, absence 

 of the uterus and ovaries, can all be transmitted. The same applies to 

 obesity ; and haBmophilia, which is accompanied by anomalies in the de- 

 velopment of the heart, of the capillaries, and of the arteries, is essentially 

 hereditary. Finally, so well-known a malformation as hare-lip is often 

 transmitted. 



We need not cite further instances. The medical world is practically 

 unanimous as to the hereditary transmission of teratological malformations, 

 and it is probable that familiarity with this transmission, coupled with 

 inadequate acquaintance with the theory of Weismann, has led the medical 

 profession to stand aloof from his theory of evolution; whereas the 

 majority of non-medical biologists have adopted it. It is, perhaps, weU to 

 see whether Weismann's theory can be reconciled with the fact of the 

 transmission of teratological characters ; for a theory can only survive if 

 it is in harmony with the facts ; and it cannot be denied that the facts of 

 teratological heredity do at first sight present a difficulty. 



Dr. Charles Fere, of Bicetre, has collected a store of facts relating to 

 teratological heredity in general, and to the relations between teratological 

 malformations and neuropathic diseases in particular. ^ Accepting the 

 facts, which, he states, are based on a vast number of authorities, we would 

 submit the following considerations. 



It might be maintained that the general pathological condition of the 

 germ-plasm of the parents, a condition which is determined by various 

 causes, predisposes the offspring to teratological malformations. In this 

 case the latter are not themselves inherited ; what is inherited is the 

 general pathological condition which serves as their constitutional basis. 

 The teratological phenomena themselves are not hereditary, but congenital 

 — that is to say, they are produced by some accident which occurred after 

 the act of procreation, during the intra-uterine period. It is well to note 

 - the difference between the terms " hereditary " and " congenital." Those 

 characteristics alone are hereditary in the scientific sense of the word which 

 are directly transmitted from the germ-plasm of the parents to the germ- 

 plasm of the offspring ; congenital characteristics are those which are 

 acquired by the offspring during embryonic development, and which 



' Ch. Fere, La Famille nevropathique : Theorie teratologique de I'herediie et de 

 la predisposition morbides, et de la degenerescence, pp. 152-191 (Paris, Alcan, 

 1898). Vide alec Isidore Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Histoire generale et particvliire 

 des Anomalies de V Organisation, 3 vols. Paris, 1833-37. 



