Chap. XII. INHERITANCE. 467 



flammation and pits from the small -pox (and formerly 

 many consecutive generations must have been thus pitted) 

 are not inherited. "With respect to Jews, I have been assured 

 by three medical men of the Jewish faith that circumcision, 

 which has been practised for so many ages, has produced no 

 inherited effect. Blumenbach, however, asserts 57 that Jews 

 are often born in Germany in a condition rendering circum- 

 cision difficult, so that a name is given them signifying " born 

 circumcised;" and Professor Preyer informs me that this is 

 the case in Bonn, such children being considered the special 

 favourites of Jehovah. I have also heard from Dr. A. Newman, 

 of Guy's Hospital, of the grandson of a circumcised Jew, the 

 father not having been circumcised, in a similar condition. But 

 it is possible that all these cases may be accidental coincidences, 

 for Sir J. Paget has seen five sons of a lady and one son of 

 her sister with adherent prepuces ; and one of these boys was 

 affected in a manner " which might be considered like that 

 commonly produced by circumcision;" yet there was no 

 suspicion of Jewish blood in the family of these two sisters. 

 Circumcision is practised by Mahomedans, but at a much 

 later age than by Jews ; and Dr. Eiedel, Assistant Eesident 

 in North Celebes, writes to me that the boys there go naked 

 until from six to ten years old ; and he has observed that 

 many of them, though not all, have their prepuces much 

 reduced in length, and this he attributes to the inherited 

 effects of the operation. In the vegetable kingdom oaks and 

 other trees have borne galls from primeval times, yet they 

 do not produce inherited excrescences ; and many other such 

 facts could be adduced. 



Notwithstanding the above several negative cases, we 

 now possess conclusive evidence that the effects of operations 

 are sometimes inherited. Dr. Brown-Sequard 58 gives the 

 following summary of his observations on guinea-pigs ; and 

 this summary is so important that I will quote the whole : — 



s? 'Philosoph. Mag.' vol. iv., 1799, 1875, p. 7. The extracts are from 



p. 5. this last paper. It appears that 



58 ' Proc. Royal Soc.,' vol. x. p. Obersteiner, l Strieker's Med. Jahr* 



297. 'Communication to the Brit. bucher,' 1875, No, 2, has confirmed 



Assoc ,' 1870. ' The Lancet,' Jan. Brown-Sequard's observations. 



