<P> Weismann conducted the experiment of removing the tails of 68 white mice , repeatedly over 5 generations , and reporting that no mice were born in consequence without a tail or even with a shorter tail . He stated that `` 901 young were produced by five generations of artificially mutilated parents , and yet there was not a single example of a rudimentary tail or of any other abnormality in this organ . '' Weismann was aware of the limitations of this experiment , and made it clear that he embarked on the experiment precisely because , at the time , there were many claims of animals inheriting mutilations ( he refers to a claim regarding a cat that had lost its tail having numerous tail-less offspring ) . There were also claims of Jews born without foreskins . None of these claims , he said , were backed up by reliable evidence that the parent had in fact been mutilated , leaving the perfectly plausible possibility that the modified offspring were the result of a mutated gene . The purpose of his experiment was to lay the claims of inherited mutilation to rest . The results were consistent with Weismann 's germ plasm theory . </P>
<P> Weismann conducted the experiment of removing the tails of 68 white mice , repeatedly over 5 generations , and reporting that no mice were born in consequence without a tail or even with a shorter tail . He stated that `` 901 young were produced by five generations of artificially mutilated parents , and yet there was not a single example of a rudimentary tail or of any other abnormality in this organ . '' Weismann was aware of the limitations of this experiment , and made it clear that he embarked on the experiment precisely because , at the time , there were many claims of animals inheriting mutilations ( he refers to a claim regarding a cat that had lost its tail having numerous tail-less offspring ) . There were also claims of Jews born without foreskins . None of these claims , he said , were backed up by reliable evidence that the parent had in fact been mutilated , leaving the perfectly plausible possibility that the modified offspring were the result of a mutated gene . The purpose of his experiment was to lay the claims of inherited mutilation to rest . The results were consistent with Weismann 's germ plasm theory . </P>
who disproved the idea of inheritance using tailless mice
who disproved the idea of inheritance using tailless mice
Weismann
Weismann