INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 11 
chewing apparatus of some kinds of pet dogs where the 
jaws are shortened, the teeth degenerate, the muscles 
are weakened, and their bony attachments become less 
prominent, there can be no doubt that the change is due 
to the continued absence of any action on the part of the 
apparatus sufficient to keep it in its original state of 
proficiency. Now we are at once brought face to face with 
a most important question: Can functionally-produced 
changes of structure be inherited? In the ‘‘ Zoonomia,”’ 
Hrasmus Darwin contends that they can, and his grandson, 
Charles Darwin, seems to support this view; but many 
biologists smce have been strongly of opinion that such 
changes of structure are confined to the generation in 
which they appear and cannot be handed on by heredity. 
A good deal of important evidence has been collected 
by anatomists which has a bearing upon this matter. 
To begin with, there can be no doubt that use and disuse 
modify the body in the individual; the muscles of the 
athlete, the keen eye of the sailor, the delicate sense 
of touch in the blind, are well known and convincing 
proofs that both the structure and the function of various 
parts of the body may undergo considerable change 
as the result of continued practice. Some interesting 
papers by Mr. Arbuthnot Lane have appeared lately 
in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, in which the 
author shows that in certain trades, such as shoemaking, 
coal-heaving, &c., the effect upon the body is such that the 
occupation may actually be discovered by an examination 
of the skeleton of the subject. In the last of these papers, 
on ‘“‘The Anatomy of the Shoemaker,’’* Mr. Lane gives a 
most detailed account of the manner in which the charac- _ 
teristic positions and actions of shoemaking have produced 
effects upon almost every system of the body; while in a 
* Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, new series, vol. xxii., p. 593. 
