THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vor. XXVIII. January, 1894. 325 
CRITICISM OF SOME CASES OF APPARENT TRANS- 
MISSION OF MUTILATIONS.' 
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF Dr. O. vom RATH. 
Whenever a discussion arises as to whether characters ac- 
quired in the life of the individual are transmitted, first of all 
is ordinarily put the special question? whether the transmis- 
sion of mutilations may be admitted. In various papers Weis- 
mann (32) has shown that the previously known cases of 
alleged transmission of mutilations do not hold their ground 
before careful criticism, and are far from serving as indispu- 
table proof. In the judgment of such cases so much greater 
care is necessary, since it is often very difficult to decide 
1 TRANSLATOR’S NoTE.—This article appeared originally in the Berichte der Natur- 
aie Gesellschaft zu Freiburg, i, Bn., Bd. VI, Heft 3, and was reprinted in the 
Biologisches Centralblatt, Bd. XIII, No. 3, p. 65-76, from which it was translated. 
Especially in its striking proof of the necessity of extreme care in sifting and testing 
evidence, it forms a most valuable contribution to the literature of a subject which, 
perhaps, more than most others, has been marked by failure to oe sharply the 
scientific method.—Henry B. Ward, University of Nebraska, Lin 
"2 The special question of the transmission of mutilations is of the greatest impor- 
tance, since a single case of such transmission, if entirely beyond question, would be 
sufficient to decide finally the entire matter of the inheritance of acquired characters, 
since, in that case, the possibility of the transmission of all characters acquired in the 
` lifetime of the individual, in physical as well as intellectual relations, would also have 
to be granted. By the by, I should like to mention just here, that at present some 
authors, and with them a part of the educated laity, are inclined to deny the trans- 
- mission of single injuries or eres but, on the other hand, to look upon the 
transmission of acquired characters upon the whole as possible. 
