1892.] What is an “Acquired Character.” 1013 
character has been at last rewarded; but no;—“A high degree 
of susceptibility of the skin of the thumb was obviously innate 
in the father, and this “ susceptibility” was what was “ certainly 
transmitted, and led to the similar malformation of the thumbs 
of the children.” ” 
Artificially produced epilepsy in guinea pigs was inherited 
by the descendants to the fifth generation, but, “ it is easy to 
imagine that the passage of some specific organism (from the 
lesion made by the division of the sciatic nerve!) through the 
reproductive cells may take place.” ™ , 
Westphal produces inheritable epilepsy by blows upon the 
head, and Ziegler asks if the guinea-pigs operated on “may 
not have been already predisposed to disease?” 
But enough examples have been given to demonstrate that 
acquired characters, however evident they may be to all but 
the NeoDarwinians, have the convenient property of becoming 
blastogenic, or not acquired, whenever they are proved to be 
transmitted. 
To what, then, shall we liken an acquired character? To 
an unstable chemical compound, a vanishing quantity, a 
will-o’-the-wisp, a name to conjure with! And the Neo- 
Lamarckians are but children chasing rainbows, which are 
conjured away in smiling complacency by the wise NeoDar- 
Winians of this generation. 
Essays on Heredity. (Weismann) Page 451. 
Essays on Heredity. (Weismann) Page 82. 
®Organic Evolution. (Eimer) Page 182. 
