The Non-inheritance of Amputations 169 
this would justify the assertion that the inheritance of 
acquired characters has not yet been directly proven, only 
in the case that there were but a few facts or only a 
single fact that could be brought forward in proof of 
it. But when on the contrary there are a very large 
number of facts favorable to a given principle, even 
though each one of them by itself would not be an 
absolutely incontestable proof, they would in spite of 
that have, when taken as a whole, a very great value 
as proof, and this value would be so much the greater 
if the opponents of the principle, in seeking to deny the 
incontestability of the individual facts, are forced to 
resort to as many specially devised subtleties. 
On the other hand the non-inheritance of certain 
gross instantaneous modifications, such as amputations 
and other similar things, of which Weismann and his 
followers make so great a case, proves nothing against 
the inheritance of functional adaptations which are of quite 
different nature. 
For let us consider the dynamic equilibrium existing 
in the adult state in a given small portion of the soma, 
and let us suppose also that this equilibrium was estab- 
lished by a process of epigenetic nature dependent upon 
all the rest of the organism. If this local equilibrium 
is suddenly very much disturbed as is the case in 
amputations, instead of gradually and slowly as in 
functional adaptations, one can understand that it can 
and must be promptly restored in the neighborhood 
of the wound or in any case in the limited area of 
the stump, before the disturbance has time to extend 
much farther. Therefore if there is a definite place 
in the organism to which non-transitory derangements 
and the variations of equilibrium caused thereby must 
