ACQUIRED TRAITS HEREDITARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 14, 18 January 1898, Page 6

ACQUIRED TRAITS HEREDITARY.

STRIKING PHOOFS BY PROFESSOR

LOMBROSO.

The great Italian student of crimejoins in the jo^ist between Herbert Spencer and Weissmann with a paper in the October 'Forum' on 'the heredity of acquired characteristics;' and it is significant of the difference between the Latin and the Teuton styles that while only a few experts can follow Spencer,any English reader can understand Lombroso. The Italian backs up tbe Englishman's contention that acquired traits are transmitted.

HOW THE CAMEL 'ACQUIRED' HIS

HUMP.

He adduces an almost humorous instance from his study of the camel — which is identical with the llama, except in stature —and the hump: — The camel differs strikingly from the llama in that it possesses the hump —that fatty mass, with a special development of some of the spinal processes. For a long time I could not explain this hump. One day, however, a poor porter, having- a complaint in his chest, came to consult me; and on examination I found, half way down his back, precisely where he was wont to rest his burdens, a tumour larger than a man's fist, formed almost wholly of adipose tissue. It suddenly occurred to me that this 'hump—which not only caused the porter no inconvenience, but even aided him in his work—might perhaps serve as a clue to my mystery of the camel's

hump. ... I succeeded in examining- 70 pqrters of various occupations, and I was able to find four more examples of this fatty tumour. What was of even greater value in our inquiry was the fact that 50 percent, of the porters examined, although having no real hump, yet presented an unusual protuberance of the spinal processes. . . Two veterans "of the art presented formations still more singular, namely.curvatures of the spine, or true acquired humps; while the breast was puffed up.

The camel, acting as four-footed porter to man for untold ages, has similarly acquired its hump. Furthermore, this hump is atrophied in the racing- camel as well as in the camel in a wild state. Yet it is found well formed in the new born camel. The single hump of the dromedary, again, is but 'the fusion of the .double hump.' The Turcomans changed the form of the trapping, amputated the second hump, and bred from beasts with the second hump less developed, and the camel evolved into the dromedary. By these discoveries the professor thinks himself now able to explain 'that sort of adipose appendance attached to the buttocks and the flanks of our Hottentot sisters on which their infants are supported.'

THE JEW AND THE ABYSSINIAN

A CONTRAST

The professor proceeds to trace the transmission of acquired psychical traits. From the study of ancient Hebrew skulls and Egyptian monuments he finds the persistence of 'dolichocephalism, prognathism, thickness of eyebrow and fulness of lips' in the Jewish type, and he notes also 'tenacity of purpose, religious.cred.ul-r. ity, olannishness, intolerance, a spirit of rebellion.' But the physical traits alter, English Hebrews becoming blonde, and Italian Hebrews developing rounded skulls. Once they possessed heroic courage and contempt of life: —'The Abyssinian is the true, heir and the nearest relation of the Hebrew, having cmi. i/ated in ancient times from Judea in several expeditions. The later b.gan, under Solomon, with an expedition of 120,000 men—warriors and priests—who established a son of Solomon upon the throne. Then followed, in the times of Nebuchadnezzar and Shalmaneser, a second and a third emigration. Finally, in the time of Titus, a fourth to.ok place, which established itself in the valley of Samen, where the artisan's craft was exercised. These pure Hebrews formed that military aristocracy which governed feudally the people called, with contempt, "mixed," or Abyssinians. This people became converted to Christianity. . . The Abyssinians manifest not only a cohesion very rare in the African world, but such courage and extraordinary warlike ability that they have discomfited the best armed civilised nations.

. ... . The age-long humiliation, begun at the time of the Roman conquest, so crushed the Hebrews as to leave surviving- only the timid and those who, showing- less bold.ness,were able to avoid or forestall oppression. The result is that, instead of warlike and heroic courage, we find amongcharacteristics of the Hebrews timidity and Ipve of gain. This may be established statistically by the very small number of suicides and of soldiers.

'We find among" tlie Hebrews an excessive activity and curiosity, political and scientific; while inertia, apathy, and the absence of .scientific curiosity are proverbial in the Semite. . . .

Here we have then a series of acquired physical characteristics which have become, hereditary.'

HOW THE ENGLISH EVOLVED

INTO AMERICANS.

The professor draws the next parallel nearer home:—'Moreover, does not the North American oft'er the best evidence of the heredity of newly acquired characteristics, both physical and psychical? The skin has become darker, the orbits larger, the neck longer, the head smaller and more rounded, the fingers longer than those of his Anglo-Saxon father. And to his moral nature, it is well known how much he has changed from the British type. The overwhelming reverence of the English for tradition and historic formalism has been replaced by a true passion for modernity. . . This. . . happens because a race among the most robust of Europe has been transported to different surroundings; and the struggle for existence —rendered fiercer in the wilderness and among hostile tribes— if it served to destroy the weaker.gave room for the greater development of the strong. . . But, above all, the American has broken completely all

the constraints and bonds of historical traditions that have remained so tenacious in Europe; he has, on the contrary, developed the sense of the new, and of independence. . . These con ditions. . . developed even to the point of a natural disposition the sense of the grandiose and the gigantic, which lie carries into his building's, his monuments, and his -undertaking's generally.' The professor closes with what appears to the nonexpert to be a decisive proof of his position:—'Civilised man has acquired in the cerebral cortex —in a fold of the parietal lobe- —the physical centre of reading-, which in certain maladies, especially.- in apoplexy, is paralysed, causing- the reading- power to disappear. Now this centre has positively been acquired within historic time, although the period cannot be definitely fixed; it certainly is not found in men j-et savage. The same may be said of the speech-centre —the third left frontal convolution.'