VIVISECTION AND THE INHERITANCE OF DEFORMITIES.
[To TES EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sri,—Professor Lankester must be aware, (1), that the experi- ments to which he alludes in his letter to the Spectator are too repulsive in their nature to be republished in the columns of that journal ; (2), that the "importance" of the results obtained by them is practically nil, compared with the light thrown on the subject of hereditary transmission by studies pursued under natural conditions in the immensely more ex- tended field of observation ; (3), that as regards either evidence or research, the experiments of vivisectionists in this direction are, to say the least, superfluous, scientific observation having already ascertained and verified the fact that injuries of the brain and nervous system, or those affecting the functional activities, are transmissible ; while those which are strictly localised, as the scar of a burn, or the distorted foot of a Chinese woman, are confined to the individual, and not in-
herited by offspring.—I am, Sir, &c., E. T. S.
Previous page
