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16   NATURAL INHERITANCE.   [CHAP.

are injected, none of the fluid enters those of the mother. Again, not only is the unborn child a separate animal from its mother, that obtains its air and nourishment from her purely through soakage, but its constituent elements are of very much less recent growth than is popularly supposed. The ovary of the mother is as old as the mother herself ; it was well developed in her own embryonic state. The ova it contains in her adult life were actually or potentially present before she was born, and they grew as she grew. There is more reason to look on them as collateral with, the mother, than as parts of the mother. The same may be said with little reservation concerning the male elements. It is therefore extremely difficult to see how acquired faculties can be inherited by the children. It would be less difficult to conceive of their inheritance by the grandchildren. Well devised experiment into the limits of the power of inheriting acquired faculties and mutilations, whether in plants or animals, is one of the present desiderata in hereditary science. Fortunately for us, our ignorance of the subject will not introduce any special difficulty in the inquiry on which we are now engaged.


Variety of Petty Influences.-The incalculable number of petty accidents that concur to produce variability among brothers, make it impossible to predict the exact qualities of any individual from hereditary data. But we may predict average results with great certainty, as will be seen further on, and we can also