1911.] the Transmission of Acquired Characters. 



565 



Further, the two conditions are similar in the condition of the animals 

 which exhibit them. Thus, in the decapitate cat, the higher centres are 

 removed down to the level of the caudal margin of the medulla oblongata 

 by operative procedure. In the guinea-pig under anaesthesia, certain of 

 the higher centres are temporarily eliminated by the action of the narcotic. 



Fig. 3. — Record of the movements of the true scratch-reflex of the hind limbs obtained 

 on stimulating the skin of the neck mechanically in a decerebrate guinea-pig. The 

 ordinates a, a' mark corresponding points in the two tracings. 



In the cat, as Sherrington has demonstrated (49), a state of asphyxia 

 favours the scratch-reflex ; and in the guinea-pig, as the present author has 

 shewn (47), asphyxia favours the " narcosis scratch." 



The present author at one time thought that a true scratch-reflex could 

 not be obtained in the normal decerebrate guinea-pig (53). But he 

 subsequently found (59) that it might appear in such preparations, although 

 rarely. The observation is of interest. In a normal guinea-pig, from which 



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