276 
THE MIDLAND UNION. 
Dec., 1889. 
The Election of Officers then took place, Mr. E. de Hamel 
being re-elected Treasurer, and Dr. Lawson Tait and Mr. 
Kineton Parkes, Secretaries. A vote of thanks to the Officers 
of the past year was then passed, especial reference being 
made to the retirement of Mr. Waller from the post of secre¬ 
tary, which he had held for five years. A Committee, as 
follows, with power to add to their number, was appointed to 
enquire into the affairs of the Union, and its relations with 
the Midland Naturalist:—Mr. R. W. Chase, Dr. 0. Deane, 
Mr. Gr. C. Druce, M.A., Mr. R. M. Dixon, Rev. P. M. Feil- 
den. Mr. E. de Hamel, Professor Hillhouse, Mr. H. Pearce, 
Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., Dr. Lawson Tait, and Mr. Beebv 
Thompson. 
The President then delivered the Address on ‘‘Hereditv.” 
«/ 
printed at pages 245-58. 
Mr. Francis Gralton, F.R.S., spoke at considerable length 
upon the question, and referred to many of his own investi¬ 
gations, which had led him independently to the same con¬ 
clusion as that adopted by Professor Weismann. 
Dr. Collier stated that he should not have ventured to 
take part in the discussion had he not felt that some of the 
opinions advanced by Professor Weismann were opposed to 
the views held by the bulk of the medical profession. Mr. 
Poulton had told them that if Weismann’s Theory of Heredity 
were true, it would not allow that acquired characters could 
be transmitted ; but Dr. Collier asserted that the general 
opinion of the medical profession was that certain morbid 
changes in the tissues and organs of the body acquired during 
adult life might in some subtile manner be transmitted to 
the offspring, and render the offspring far more likely to 
develop the disease from which the father and mother 
suffered than would be the offspring of healthy individuals. 
He would take, as an example, gout. Let us suppose that a 
healthy man marries at thirty, leads a healthy life, and has 
two or three children. Between thirty-five and forty he then 
begins to indulge himself with the pleasures of the table, eats 
large quantities of animal food, drinks largely of the heavier 
wines, and at the same time takes very little exercise. As 
a result of this he develops a distinct attack of gout. Now 
experience proved that the children that might be born to 
such a man after he had developed gout would be far more 
likely to suffer from gout than were the children he had had 
previous to the development of the disease. Experience had 
