8 The American Naturalist. [January, 
tleman died many years ago, and it was on that account im- 
possible for me to determine whether he also did not possess 
from his birth, such a mark on his right cheek, the existence 
of which was gradually forgotten; especially, as on this cheek, 
the large scar and a number of smaller cuts were added. 
Besides this possibility, there ought not to be left out of con- 
sideration the fact that not infrequently peculiar birth-marks 
are brought into the world by children, without the same or 
similar marks ever having been observed in the family in 
question or among relatives. That sometime such a mark 
could appear in some child exactly on the spot on which the 
father had had a cut, is, of itself, nothing surprising, or indeed 
strange. In a like sense Weismann has already expressed 
himself, before, indeed, such a case of apparent transmission of 
a scar had come to light. “I, indeed, do not wish to doubt,” 
says Weismann, “that among the many thousand -students 
whose faces are adorned by so-called cuts, one could be found 
sometime whose son has a birth-mark on the precise place on 
which the scar of the father is found. There exist many kinds 
of birth-marks; why not sometime, then, one exactly on the 
position and exactly in the form of a scar. Then we would 
have here a case such as the adherents of the doctrine of the 
° How easily such birthmarks, especially if prominent only in early childhood, come 
to be forgotten, may be seen from the following incident: The young man in question, 
who, like his grandfather, fought left-handed, and has also carried off a considerable 
number of cuts on his right cheek and forehead, is now father of two children, who 
show no trace of the family mark. The g wife of the gentleman, whom, as a 
arents, sisters and 
Gradually it has grown rather 
indistinct, and has come to be forgotten, especially since the ‘“ bang” of the child 
I have convinced myself 
band an 
it, and could be convinced of the actual presence of this mark 
only by the assurance of her mother who confirmed my indiscreet statements. At 
» moreover, only a very weak, scarcely perceptible trace of this mark is to be 
recognized. If a child of this couple had brought into the world any birth-mark 
whatsoever upon the brow, this mark surely would have been brought in genetic con- 
nection with one of the cuts on the forehead of the father, since the congenital mark 
on the mother’s brow had long since lapsed into forgetfulness. One would then, with 
great probability, have spoken falsely of the transmission of a scar. 
