From: "Mitchell A. Bailey" <MAB@lindau.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re:Butter-fingered Annese
Date: Sat, 03 Apr 1999 17:10:32 

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> 
> On 4-2-99 Mitchell A. Bailey wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> >>As an aside: I've always found the manual dexterity attribute of the
> Annese kind of troubling. ...> 
>     I think Wolfe was applying Lamarck's idea that once an organ or
> attribute has "lost" its functionality and, if favorable circumstances for it recur, that that organ or attribute can not resume its former
> functionality. I think what Wolfe intended here was that the Annese had lost the use of their opposable thumb and could not reacquire it. You can weave a net with just your fingers and teeth, but just try to use a shovel without using your thumb. It is also why V.R.T couldn't write worth a damn.
> 
> Roy

Thanks, Roy

You meant to say Dollo's law, I presume. Actually, I had never heard of
Dollo's Law until I read 5HC almost twenty years ago, and I never heard
of Lamarck until I read the archives (Master Ultan Knew exactly which
shelf to find it upon). My education was rather light on biology.

I am indeed pondering possible answers to my own question, and Lamarck
(as I understand it from you folks' previous discussions) plays a part.
Watch this space.


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