Inheritance of Acquired Characters

Abstract

THE interesting letter from A. F. Dufton in NATURE of Oct. 1, p. 508, suggests a statistical method of study of the possible transmission to the offspring of mental characteristics acquired during their life by their parents, the possibilities and limitations of which seem to have been little explored or discussed. Mr. Dufton takes the age distribution of the fathers at the birth of 1000 eminent persons from the fourteenth edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica”, and shows that these ages are distinctly higher than the ages of the fathers of 100,000 children less than one year of age at the Census of Scotland in 1921. At first sight the inference might be drawn from this fact that the superior ability of the children was due to the increased wisdom acquired by their parents during their experience of life ; but, before drawing this conclusion, there are one or two preliminary points to be considered.