Sign Language Studies, January 1st, 2005
IN 1889, German biologist August Weissmann showed that mice whose tails are cut off do not produce short-tailed offspring. It was a step forward for science, but a step backward for civilization. Weissmann's discovery was good for science because, contrary to what many scientists had believed, acquired characteristics are not, of course, heritable. Weissmann's experiment helped to close the book on the neo-Lamarckianism that many scientists had adopted in order to blunt the edge on Darwin's theory of natural selection. Darwin had left evolution to chance and had pretty much ruled out the inevi...
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