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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: sexual elements having been affected by the conditions to which either
parent, or their ancestors, have been exposed. Nevertheless an effect thus
caused at a very early period, even before the formation of the embryo, may
appear late in life; as when an hereditary disease, which appears in old
age alone, has been communicated to the offspring from the reproductive
element of one parent. Or again, as when the horns of cross-bred cattle
have been affected by the shape of the horns of either parent. For the
welfare of a very young animal, as long as it remains in its mother's womb,
or in the egg, or as long as it is nourished and protected by its parent,
it must be quite unimportant whether most of its characters are fully
acquired a little earlier or later in life. It would not signify, for
On the Origin of Species |
