The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-11-17
ARE ACQUIRED TRAITS HERED-
iTARY?

President David Starr Jordan of Palo
Alto is delivering series of lectures on.
Evolution" at Golden Gate Hall. Ray-
ing cleared the ground in his first lecture
and laid down the conclusions to which
men of science have come. he took up on
Wednesday the open question of the
transmission of acquired traits or facul-
ties by heredity. Are all acquired charac-
teristies transmissible by inheritance? As
Mr.. Jordan puts il, if man should carry
one arm in sling all his life. SO that the
arm should become disabled, would his
posterity be born with one useless arm?
That is a question which science has not
yet answered. In many respects The child
inberits tire characteristics of the father.
The descendant of line of cultured peo-
pie is born with SUPERIOR mental capacity
to the descendant of line of sayages.
Children inherit the color. the stature, the
voice and many of the idiosyncrasies not
oFly of their immediate parents but OF
their more remote ancestry. How far
does this hereditary transmission go? Ii
q man develops his eyesight or his hearing
or his muscular system by a steady course
Of training will be transmit sharp sight,
keen hearing. great strength TO his chill
dren. as the Japanese raise wrestlers b.
training generation after generation?
Will great lawyer be apt 10 beget sons
learned in the law or skillful surgeon
become the progenitoI of a race of sur
geons? Each person is apt to answer
such questions SIS these from his own OBJ
servstions; but the rsnA of the man with
the widest acquaintance and reading is
too limited 10 serve as the foundation for
a formuls.
Professor Jordan says that the calls of
which human bodies are composed are in
herited IN the proportion of 25 per cent
from the father, - per cent from the
mother. 8 per cent from the grandparents
and IL per cent from other ancestry. The
individuals which constitute this ancestry
are so numerous. and their traits were so
varied that no one is an exact reproduc-
ton of human being who lived before.
Every one borrows something from his
father, something from his mother; but
one-half of his cells are legacy from an
Infinite number of individuals. each of
whom contributed his mite. This is a
study which is familiar to horse breeders.
The breeder chooses sire who possesses
the qualities he desires IN the foal. and
couples this sire with a dam possessing
the qualities which the sire lacks. When
he can he goes back generation. and
looks for merit in the progenitors of the
sire and the dam. But when all is said
and done he has only provided for one
half the cells in his foal; the other half
are derived from ancestry with which he
is unacquainted. 1t is a mere matter Of
chance how much the foal will inherit
from each. But the breeder will
testify that the foal of a sire and dam
which have been trained on the race field |
will be more likely TO show speed, spirit |
and endurance than the foal of a dam and |
sire Of the same lineage that have not been
trained, which would 60 to prove the |
heredity of acquired qualities.
The value of these inquiries is derived
from the probability that at some distant |
period in the future parents and society at |
large will interfere more than they do |
now in matrimonial selection. II acquired
characteristics are transmissible by
heredity, the law may intervene to proven,
marriages which are likely to perpetuate
traits whose exerise is at variance with
the public interest Parents have always
opposed the marriage of their daughters 10 |
drunkards, gamblers or thieves; but if |
characteristics less broadly injurious than |
a propensity to drink, gamble or steal, but |
still inconvenient for the community, |
should appear likely to be perpetuated by !
reckless. marriages, it would seem that |
society might be justified in exerting re- |
StrainiDp influence