Essays Upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems / Authorised Translation

by August Weismann

The last class of cases which I should wish to consider, refer to observations in which the mutilation of the parent was certain, and in which a malformation similar to the mutilation had appeared in the child, but in which exact investigation shows that the malformations in parent and child do not in reality correspond to each other.

In this class I include an instance which has only become known during the present year (1888), and which has been observed as exactly as possible by an anthropologist and physician, who has worked up the history of the case. Dr. Emil Schmidt communicated to this year’s meeting of the German Anthropologists’ Association at Bonn a case which indeed seems at first sight to prove that mutilations of the human ear can be transmitted. As Dr. Schmidt has been kind enough to place at my disposal all the material which he collected upon the subject, I have been able to examine it more minutely than is generally possible in such cases; and I will discuss it in detail, as it seems to me to be of fundamental importance in the history of human errors upon this subject.

In a most respectable and thoroughly trustworthy family, the mother possesses a cleft ear-lobe upon one side. She quite distinctly remembers that when playing, between the ages of six and ten years, another child tore out her ear-ring, and that the wound healed so that the cleft remained. Later on a new hole was made in the posterior part of the lobe. She had seven children, and the second of these, who is now a full-grown man, has a cleft ear-lobe on the same side as the mother. It is not known whether the mother possessed an innate malformation of the ear before it was mutilated, but, judging from the present appearance of the ear, this is extremely improbable. Furthermore, the existence of an innate cleft in the ear-lobe has never been previously observed. The parents of the mother did not possess any malformation of the ear. The conclusion seemed to be therefore inevitable that the transmission of an artificial cleft in the ear-lobe had really taken place.

But we must not be too hasty in forming an opinion. When we compare the figures I. and II., representing the two ears, we are first of all struck by the fact that the malformation of the ear of the son has an entirely different appearance from that of the mother. The ear-lobe of the latter is quite normally formed; it is broad and well-developed, and only exhibits a median vertical furrow which is the result of the mutilation. The ear-lobe of the son, on the other hand, is extremely minute, one might even maintain that it is completely wanting. In my opinion a cleft is not present at all, but the far higher posterior corner of the ear forms the end of its posterior margin—the so-called helix. But even if another opinion were pronounced with regard to the interpretation of this part, there is one other circumstance to be taken into account, which appears to me to be absolutely conclusive, and which completely excludes the interpretation of this malformation as the transmission of a mutilation.

Fig. I. H. Helix. Cr. Ah. Crura anthelicis. Ah. Anthelix. Cch. Concha. Hl¹. and Hl². Holes 1 and 2 for ear-rings. Lob. Ear-lobe. Sp. H. Spina helicis. Inc. Incisura intertragica. Tr. Tragus. Atr. Antitragus.

If we compare the ears with each other, that of the mother with that of the son, not only the anatomist but every trained observer will at once be struck by the fact that they are totally different in their outlines as well as in every detail. The upper margin of the ear is very broad in the mother, in the son it is quite pointed: the so-called crura anthelicis are normally developed in the mother, in the son they can hardly be distinguished and open in an anterior direction, while in the mother they are directed upwards. The concha itself, the incisura intertragica, in short everything in the two ears, is as different as it can possibly be in the ears of two individuals.

But this fact obviously proves that the son does not possess the ear of his mother, but probably that of his father or grandfather. Unfortunately the father and grandfather have been now dead for a long time, so that we cannot obtain certain evidence upon this point. At all events, the son does not possess the ear of his mother, and it would be very rash to suppose that he has inherited the ear from the father, but the malformation of the ear-lobe from the mother—a malformation which, as it seems to me, is certainly quite different from that of his mother’s ear. I said that this case was of fundamental importance chiefly because it shows very distinctly, on the one hand, how difficult it is to bring together the material which is absolutely necessary for the correct understanding of a single case, and on the other hand, how carefully the abnormalities must be compared and examined if we wish to escape wrong conclusions. Such precautions have hitherto been rarely taken with the necessary accuracy; people are in most cases satisfied with the knowledge that an abnormality is present in the child on the same part which had been malformed by mutilation in the parent.

But if we are to speak of the transmission of a mutilation, it must be shown, before everything else, that the malformation of the child corresponds precisely to the mutilation of the parent.

For this reason the older observations upon this subject are, in most cases, entirely valueless.