1894.] Criticism: Transmission of Mutilations. $ 
The third case which I shall now report came to my know- 
ledge as in my own family,in consequence of the instance just 
described, the question of the transmission of mutilations was 
actively discussed. In that connection, this case was held up to 
me as an absolutely trustworthy proof of the possibility, yes, 
of the fact of such a transmission. The case is the more inter- 
esting since it is concerned with the apparent transmission of 
a scar [“ Schmıss ”—the term applied to the duelling scars of 
the German students.—Trans.|. 
Mr. H. had received, as a student, a serious saber cut, ex- 
tending vertically along his right cheek, and had retained, 
during his entire life, the conspicuous scar. Since one of the 
children of the gentleman, a daughter, brought into the world, 
exactly on the same spot of the right cheek, a birth-mark in 
form of a fine red slash, the length of the father’s scar, no one 
hesitated:to bring this birth-mark into genetic connection with 
the cut of the father; and since, in addition, among the five 
children of this lady, one son also possessed from birth an 
equally long birth-mark, exactly on the same spot as that of 
his mother, no one doubted an instant that the scar of the 
grandfather, an acquired (somatogenic) character had been 
transmitted to the daughter and the grandchild. Now so con- 
vincing as indeed this case appears at first glance, it is yet very 
far removed from furnishing actually indisputable proof of the 
transmission of mutilations. 
In the first place, I should not neglect to mention that I 
have known the family in question for many years, without 
the peculiar inherited birth-mark of the lady or her son ever 
having attracted my attention, until I was called to notice, and 
could confirm its actual existence. With the lady, as with her 
son, the characteristic family mark had been very prominent 
in the early years of life, it then faded gradually, without dis- 
appearing completely, however. The elder Mrs. H., grand- 
mother of the young man, is still living, and, according to her 
own account, has never possessed such a birth-mark on her 
right cheek; at present, every trace of one is certainly lacking, 
so that one is inclined to think of a transmission from the side 
of the grandfather, the elder Mr. H. Unfortunately, this gen- 
