Much has been written on the influence of Heredity in disease. The vast majority of medical men still hold to the opinion that acquired characters are transmissible in inheritance. Thus the short-sightedness which is so prevalent in Germans and which is now a congenital character is said to have been brought about by the inheritance of the results produced by the constant reading of small print. The transmission of nervous peculiarities has also been often alleged and is strongly believed by Dr.Hughlings Jackson, Dr.Cloustonin and other specialists. At any rate the development of the musical and aesthetic faculties is felt to be difficult to explain by natural selection alone for it is not easy to see how advance along these lines would favour the survival of the individuals in the struggle for existence.
An interesting paper on "Heredity in Disease" by Professor Hamilton occurs in the Trans.Medico.Chir.Soc.Edin. (Vol.XIX. New Series) and
^ a discussion by medical men follows. It is therethus pointed out that toxnic diseases may infect the germ-plasm directly and are therefore irrelevant to the question at issue. Again touching the question of a predisposition to drunkenness it is pointed out that the germ-plasm may become poisoned by the alcohol saturating through the body. In such a case the
