1894.] Criticism: Transmission of Mutilations. 3 
instead of acquired, the word somatogenic, i. e., proceeding from 
the body—soma—in contrast to the germ substance, and to 
designate such characters as proceed from the composition 
of the germ as blastogenic. If a man’s finger is cut off, his 
tetradactyl condition is a somatogenic or acquired character; 
if, on the other hand, a child is born with six fingers, this con- 
dition must have proceeded from the peculiar constitution of 
the germ substance.‘ It is therefore a blastogenic character.” 
In this description I shall adhere to Weismann’s form of ex- 
pression. 
The facts of the first case areas follows: Ina family closely 
related to myself was kept a pair of dogs (terriers), faultless in 
every particular; both dog and slut were known to have had 
fully normal parents, and on their part to have produced, in 
several litters, normal young. By an unfortunate fall, the dog 
suffered a break in the upper part of the right humerus, as a 
result of which, even to-day, there remains a peculiar posture 
of the damaged extremity, connected with continued limping. 
In the next litter, which followed some time after the complete 
recovery of the father, were three young, two dogs and a slut. 
he fully normal young slut died soon after birth. Shortly 
thereafter, the mother came to her end also. Of the two young 
*The question whether such a sharp fundamental difference as Weismann empha- 
sizes can be made between germ and body cells, so that every trace of germ plasm is 
wanting in the somatic cells, has been answered in varying manner by different 
authors, and, for epil is distinctly denied by Kölliker (16). That Ep 
e the lower plants the difference between somatic and propagating cells m: 
small, has been jna out by Weismann himself (Biol. Centr. X, No. 1-9). 
“DeVries (29), the noted botanist, has pointed out that certain constituents of the cell- 
€. g., the chromatophores’ of the alge are transmitted directly from the egg-cell 
of the mother to the daughter organism, while the male germ-cells ordinarily contain 
no chromatophores. Here then, the inheritance of somatogenic variations would be, 
it seems, possible. Yet, just in the lower plants, the difference between somatic and 
propogating cells is still slight, and the body of the egg-cell does not need to undergo 
a complete transformation in chemical and structural respects when it develops into 
the body of the somatic cells of the daughter individual. But what has that to do 
with the problem whether, for instance, the pianist can wei smit to his descendants the 
- strength of digital muscles acquired by practice. How does this result of his practice 
tach the germrcelis ? = erein = m riddle which 2 have to solve who maintain 
” For our purpose, however, this special 
question comes less into consideration since one may regard the a of the trans- 
mission of acquired characters for the present, as a purely empirical on 
