ARE WAR MUTILATIONS TRANSMISSIBLE?

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 282, 17 August 1918, Page 8

ARE WAR MUTILATIONS TRANSMISSIBLE?

NO DANGERS FOR POSTERITY. A great number of women who havo married, or will marry, soldiers suffering from mutilations received in the war aro asking: "Do my children run any risk of hereditary mutilation. . . . . Will thoy bo born physically perfect, or can they be born like- their father?" An answer' to this question will obviate much- uneasiness and mental suffering.

There is abundanco of evidence that certain characteristics of tho parents can bo transmitted to tho offspring. It is a matter of everyday observation that children resemble their parents in facial appearance, stature, and build. The Bourbon nose and the Hapsburg lip havo been transmitted by;tho males of tho race for centuries despite their alliance with women of very varied descent. Tho tendency to obesity is vory commonly inherited.

Aβ regards actual deformation and abnormalities, that common deformity of in fnco constituting hare-lip is definitely transmissible, us aro abnormalities of tho blood-vuscular system aud tho skeleton. As instances of the latter may bo mentioned narrowiug of the pulmonary artery nml increase in tho number of fingers iilid toes. That pronounced tendency to bleed which constitutes tho tliseaso of haemophilia is essentially hereditary. If thero is much evidence to show that such parental characteristics can be transmitted, what can 1» said of tne possibility of transmitting war mutilations?

Before answering this question let us look at,the case of other acquired deformities not resulting from wounds of conservative war surgery. Is there any evidence that they can bo transmitted? In tho Chinese Empire H is customary so lo munipuliito the feet of the children that considerable deformity results. Nevertheless this deformity has to be produced in each generation afresh, for it is never transmitted. The same must be said of those mutilations iwhich are carried out generation after generation by certain races from religious motives or from custom. Theyi havo to be repeated uiran each individual all through Uio ages. As regards war mutilations, tho answer is also in) the negative—they cannot be transmitted, In those cases iiboyo which apparently favour tlio suggestion that the parents may: transmit certain characteristics to their children, the reason is that tho germ cell is primarily affected and has, so to spoak, ineffaceable characters etainped upon it. Sueli a condition cannot be brought about by mutilations of outlying parts of the body, and thero is 110 evidence worth tho name that the children of this generation will Suffer from tho fact that tthejr male ipireute ha\-i\ shed thoir blood.or sacrificed limbs in tho cause of their country,—E.W.B. in the "Daily Mail."