Inheritance of Acquired Characters 257 
the theory itself, but point it out simply as one of the conse- 
quences of the theory. 
It has been shown quite recently, by Charrin, Delamare, 
and Moussu, that when, after the operation of laparotomy on 
a pregnant rabbit or guinea-pig, the kidney or the liver has 
become diseased, the offspring sometimes show similar affec- 
tions in the corresponding organs (kidney or liver). The 
result is due, the authors think, to some substance set free | 
from the diseased kidney of the parent that affects the kidney 
of the young in the uterus. By injecting into the blood of a 
pregnant animal fresh extracts from the kidney of another | 
animal, the authors believe that the kidney of the young are 
also affected. It will be observed that this transmission of 
an acquired character appears to be different from that of 
transmission through the egg; for it is the developing, or 
developed organ itself, that is acted upon. The results throw 
an interesting light on the cases of epilepsy described by 
Brown-Séquard, since they show that the diseased condition 
of the parent may be transmitted to the later embryonic 
stages. May not, therefore, Brown-Séquard’s results be also ; 
explained as due to direct transmission from the organs of the 
parent to the similar organs of the young in the uterus? 
There is another series of experiments of a different sort 
that has been used as an argument in favor of the Lamarck- 
jan view. These are the results that Cunningham has ob- 
tained on young flatfish, He put the very young fish, 
while still bilaterally symmetrical (in which stage the pigment | 
is equally developed on both sides of the body) into aquaria 
lighted from below. He found that when the young fish 
begins to undergo its metamorphosis, the pigment gradually | 
disappears on one side, as it would have done under normal 
conditions, z.¢. when they are lighted from above. If, how- 
ever, the fish are kept for some time longer, lighted from 
below, the pigment begins to come back again. “The first 
fact proves that the disappearance of the pigment-cells from 
s 
