170 Inheritance of Acquired Characters 
penetrate if the corresponding morphological modification 
is to be inheritable, it follows that amputations, unlike 
functional adaptations, could not as a rule leave any 
trace of themselves in the descendants. 
But in still another very essential point amputations 
are different from functional adaptation. The ampu- 
tation of a limb, or of a piece of a tail, does not con- 
stitute in any way the mode of reaction of the organism 
to a definite external influence, but rather it is this 
external influence itself. How then will its reproduction 
in the new organism be possible? This would be the 
same thing as expecting that an individual who had 
been accustomed throughout his life to bear a burden 
upon his shoulders as exercise, should transmit to his 
son not only stronger bones and muscles but also the 
burden itself which was the cause of this strengthening. 
So that the most that could be transmitted to the 
descendants of an animal which had undergone some 
amputation, would be the mode of reaction of the organ- 
ism to this gross external influence, that is all the phe- 
nomena constituting the cicatrization, properly so called, 
of the wound, as well as the establishment of a new local 
equilibrium. We must however bear in mind in this 
connection that the reproduction in the child of con- 
siderably thicker and stronger bones and muscles will 
not be hindered by the fact that it is not exposed to the 
same external influence which acted upon the parent, 
i. e. by the fact that it does not bear the same burden 
as its father, but that if one does not also repeat the 
amputation, the repetition of all the phenomena con- 
stituting the cicatrization of the wound and the reestab- 
lishment of a new equilibrium could not but be very 
much hindered and usually quite prevented by the pres- 
