sometimes the male, and sometimes the female is shown to proponderate, by the offspring inheriting the deformity of the male or the female. It is well said by Girou,* that "if the organization of the male was the only one which passed to the child, the child would resemble the father, as the fruit of a graft resembles the tree from which the graft was taken, and not at all the tree on which it was grafted." And what is here said of the whole organization, applies with equal force to any one system, such as the nervous or the nutritive.

most decisive example we could quote of the twofold influence of parents. is in the singular instance recorded by Buffon. The Marquis Spontin Beaufort had a shewolf living in his stables with a setter dog, by whom she had two cubs, a male and a female. The male resembled externally his father the dog, except that his ears were pointed and his tail like that of the wolf; the female, on the contrary, resembled her mother, the wolf, in all external characteristics except the tail, which was the same as her father's. Here in one case, the father gave the external characteristics, in the other the mother, Moreover, if the hypothesis we are while the tail was in each case, as it were, combating be admitted-if the father transposed. But the marvel of this case bestows the nervous system-how are we does not stop here: the cubs manifested to explain the notorious inferiority of the a striking difference in disposition, in each children of great men? There is consicase resembling in character, the parent it derable exaggeration afloat on this matter, did not resemble in appearance and in sex; and able men have been called nullities, thus the male cub, which had all the ap- because they have not manifested the pearance of a dog, was fierce and untame- great talents of their fathers; but allowable as the wolf; the female cub, which ing for all overstatement, the palpable had all the appearance of a wolf, was fami- fact of the inferiority of the sons to their liar, gentle, and caressing even to impor- fathers is beyond dispute, and has helped tunity. Lucas records an analogous case. to foster the idea of all great men owing These hybrids are very instructive, because their genius to their mothers, an idea the wide differences in the aspect and which will not bear confrontation with the nature of the parents enable us to separate, facts. Many men of genius have had reas it were, the influence of each. The markable mothers; and that one such inwolf and the dog often breed together; stance could be cited is sufficient to prove and the following observations, interesting the error both of the hypothesis which in themselves, will suffice to show the refers the nervous system to paternal inreader how much caution is necessary fluence, and of the hypothesis which only before drawing absolute conclusions from refers the preponderance to the paternal single illustrations. Valmont Bomare ob- influence. If the male preponderates, how served in the various hybrids of wolf and is it that Pericles, who "carried the weadog which came under his notice at Chan-pons of Zeus upon his tongue," produced tilly, a striking preponderance of the wolf nothing better than a Paralus and a Xanover the dog; Marsch, on the contrary, thippus? How came the infamous Lysiobserved in his experience a preponderance of the dog over the wolf; Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Pallas found the wolf to predominate; whereas, Marolle found the cubs remarkable for their gentleness and dog-like instincts, only recalling the wolf in their voracity and fondness for flesh. Girou found the preponderance to vary; sometimes the father, sometimes the mother re-appeared in the offspring. If there were no other evidence, this would suffice to disprove the hypothesis of either parent contributing one group of organs, to the absolute exclusion of the other parent.

The same fact of two fold influence is shown in the transmission of deformities, such as extra toes, extra fingers, etc.:

machus from the austere Aristides? How was the weighty intellect of Thucydides left to be represented by an idiotic Milesias, and a stupid Stephanus? Where was the great soul of Oliver Cromwell in his son Richard? Who were the inheritors of Henry IV. and Peter the Great? What were Shakspeare's children, and Milton's daughters? Unless the mother preponderated in these and similar instances, we are without an explanation; for it being proved as a law of heritage, that the individual does transmit his qualities to his offspring, it is only on the supposition of both individuals transmitting their organizations, and the one modifying the other,

* "De la Génération,” p. 113.

that such anomalies are conceivable. | quite clear that the child reproduces the When the paternal influence is not coun- totality of the parent. In the second teracted, we see it transmitted. Hence form, the process called "budding" takes the common remark: "talent runs in place: the child here grows out of the families." The proverbial phrases, l'esprit substance of the parent, until its developdes Mortemarts," and the "wit of the ment is completed, and then it separates Sheridans," imply this transmission from itself from the parent to live a free live. father to son. Bernardo Tasso was a Here also the parent is reproduced in its considerable poet, and his son Torquato totality. In the third form, a higher cominherited his faculties heightened by the plexity of organization has led to a more influence of the mother. The two Hers- complex and more special mode of reprochels, the two Colmans, the Kemble family, duction: the parent gives off from its and the Coleridges, will at once occur to own substance, by what may be also conthe reader; but the most striking example sidered a "budding process," a mass of known to us is that of the family which cells, which as pollen and ovule, as spermboasted Jean Sebastian Bach as the cul- cells and germ-cells, unite to develop into minating illustration of a musical genius, plants or animals. Here again, there which, more or less, was distributed over ought to be no doubt that the parents are three hundred Bachs, the children, of reproduced; their offspring truly may be course, of very various mothers. called "their own flesh and blood." Nor would the doubt have ever arisen, had not the great complexity of the organisms admitted the intervention of the Law of Variations, to which all dissemblances are due. But however such interventions may baffle our inquiries, the mind recognizes at once the truth of the proposition that sperm-cell and germ cells are as much to be regarded in the light of reproductions of the parents, as the cells produced by spontaneous division are to be regarded in the light of repetitions of the parentcell.

Here a sceptical reader may be tempted to ask, how a man of genius is ever produced, if the child is always the repetition of his parents? How can two parents of ordinary capacity produce a child of extraordinary power? The answer must be postponed until we come to treat of secondary influences. For the present, we content ourselves with insisting on the conclusion to which the foregoing survey of facts has led, namely, that both parents are always represented in the offspring; and although the male influence is sometimes seen to preponderate in one direction, and the female influence in another, yet this direction is by no means constant, is often reversed, and admits of no absolute reduction to a known formula. We can not say absolutely, "the male gives such organs;" we can not even say, "the male always proponderates in such or such a direction." Both give all organs; sometimes one preponderates, sometimes the other. In one family we see children resembling the father, children resembling the mother, and children resembling both.

This is the conclusion inevitable on a wide survey of the facts. It is equally inevitable à priori, if we take our stand upon the evidence of embryology; and as some readers prefer logical deductions to any massive accumulation of facts, we will ask them to consider the question from this point of view. Reproduction, in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, is known to naturalists under three forms. In the first, a single cell spontaneously divides itself into two cells. Here it is

And here we may glance at an ingenious hypothesis which would explain the fact of all our organs being double, by the concourse of both parents; so that the father will give one-half, the mother the other half, the father the right, the mother the left side:* "Cette idée ferait présumer que notre corps est double, et que nous sommes composés de deux corps finis artistement adossés l'un à lautre." The fact that all our organs are double-some primitively, others permanently-was first demonstrated by Serres, who, in his very remarkable work on transcendental anatomy,t has given a rapid outline of this Lex serriana, as Meckel calls it. In consequence of this primitive duality of all organs (the single organs being those in

* Brouzet: "Essais sur l'Education Médicinale des Enfans." Paris, 1754. (Quoted by Lucas.)

"Précis d'Anatomie Transcendante." Paris,

1842, p. 238. Dr. Lucus is in error when he attriof this important point. It is true Flourens himself butes to Flourens the conception and demonstration claims it in his last work, "Cours de Physiologie Comparée," 1856.

the median line, and formed by the fusion | young ones were easily distinguished by of two originally distinct organs), "l'em- their resemblance to the wild boar. Mr. bryon resulte de la réunion de deux moi- Orton verified this fact in the cases of dogs, tiés d'embryon; l'animal unique, si l'on pigs and poultry. Of the latter he says: peut s'exprimer ainsi, est le produit de "The so-called silk fowl have certain deux moitiès d'animaux." Serres would marked peculiarities-a silky, or downy not, however, give any countenance, we plumage, a black skin and face, black bill imagine to the hypothesis of each half be- and mouth, black legs, and dark or even ing furnished by each parent; for the black bones; they have, moreover, a fullyhypothesis is contradicted by the facts of developed tuft on the head, five toes, and the perfect resemblance as well as perfect are feathered on the legs and feet." Pesymmetry of each side, whereas if one culiarities such as these were invaluable for parent only gave one side, we should see the experiment. He found the produce of realized in life the fantastic combinations a silk cock with a common white hen to be sometimes seen at masquerades, present- "twelve or fifteen chickens, the whole of ing us with a figure, half of which wears which had the black skin, black mouth, the dress of a man, and half of a woman; and five toes of the silk cock-his external or half of an Italian bandit, and the other development. As to their plumage, I half of a good peaceful shopkeeper. could only judge in the case of four, the rest having died in the downy state. Of these four, then, they have all the black skin and five toes of the silk cock, but, strange enough, while three of them have downy plumage, the other has feathers,"

It is now time that we should direct our attention to some of the perturbing causes, which mask the laws of transmission from our perfect apprehension. While proclaiming as absolute the law of individual transmission, while proclaiming that the parents are always reproduced in the offspring, we are met by the obvious fact of the offspring often exhibiting so marked a departure from their parents, being so different in form and disposition, that the law seems at fault. For instance, Gall speaks of a brood of wolf-cubs taken from their mother and brought up together; one was as gentle as a dog, the others retained the savageness of their species. We may also point to the fact of a man of genius suddenly starting up in an ordinary family; or to a thousand illustrative examples in which the law of individual transmission seems at fault. To explain these would be to have mastered the whole mystery of heritage; all that we can do is to mention some of the known perturbing influences. Sir Everard Home mentions a striking case, which has become celebrated, of a thorough-bred English mare, who, in the year 1816, had a mule by a quagga-the mule bearing the unmistakeable quagga marks. In the years 1817, 1818, and 1823, this mare again foaled, and although she had not seen the quagga since 1816, her three foals were all marked with the curious quagga marks. Nor is this by any means an isolated case. Meckel observed similar results in the crossing of a wild boar with a domestic sow; in the first litter several had the brown bristles of the father; and in each of the sow's subsequent litters by domestic boars, some of the

Besides this very remarkable perturbing influence, we must also consider the phenomenon of atavism, or ancestral influence, in which the child manifests striking resemblance to the grandfather or grandmother, and not to the father or mother. The fact is familiar enough to dispense with our citing examples. How is it to be explained? It is to be explained on the supposition that the qualities were transmitted from the grandfather to the father, in whom they were masked by the presence of some antagonistic or controlling influence, and thence transmitted to the son, in whom, the antagonistic influence being withdrawn, they manifested themselves. As Longet remarks," S'il n'y a pas hêritage des caractères paternels il y a donc au moins aptitude à en heriter, disposition à les reproduire, et toujours cette transmission de cette aptitude à de nouveau descendants, chez lesquels ces mêmes caractères se manifesteront tôt ou tard."* Mr. Smith, let us say, has a remarkable aptitude for music; but the influence of Mrs. Smith is such that their children, inheriting her im perfect ear, manifest no musical talent whatever. These children, however, have inherited the disposition of their father in spite of its non-manifestation; and if, when they transmit what in them is latent, the influence of their wives is favorable, the grandchildren may turn out to be musical

* "Traité de Physiologie,” ii. 133.

ly gifted. In the same way Consumption or | ment, he still found the female N. rustica Insanity seems to lie dormant for a gen- to have the preponderance; so that, cross eration, and in the next flashes out with the species how he would, the N. rustica the same fury as of old. Atavism is thus a showed most potency. phenomenon always to be borne in mind as one of the many complications of the complex problem. Very remarkable is the atavism exhibited by some of the lower animals, who bring forth young so utterly unlike themselves as to have been long mistaken for different species: while these young in their turn bring forth animals exactly like their ancestors. Here the children of one generation always resemble their grandfathers and grandmothers, and never their fathers and mothers.*

66

But although we thus see that Race has a marked preponderance, we must also remember that it is subject to the individual variations of vigor, health, age, &c. Girou sums up his observations with this general remark: the offspring of an old male and a young female resembles the father less than the mother in proportion as the mother is more vigorous and the father more decrepit; the reverse is true of the offspring of an old female and a young male. In fact, if we consider that the offspring reproduces the organization of its parents, and, consequently, the organization of that particular

A third cause of complication is one which we propose to call the potency of race or individual." Both father and moth-period, we see at once that age, health, and er transmit their organizations, but they do so in unequal degrees: the more potent predominates; just as if you mix brandy with equal amounts of water, soda water, and ginger beer, the taste of the brandy will predominate more in the water than in the soda water, more in the soda water than in the ginger beer.

According to Rush (quoted by Lucas), the Danes, intermarrying with women of the East, always produce children resembling the European type; but the converse does not hold good when Danish women intermarry with the men of the East. Klaproth observes the same in the mingling of the Caucasian and Mongolian races. Girou, after five-and-twenty years' experience in the breeding of sheep, found this "potency" destroy his calculations. He fancied that by means of his Roussillon sheep and the Merino rams, he could sooner arrive at the fineness of wool which distinguishes the Merino, than if he coupled the Aveyron sheep with the Merino rams; but he found that the Roussillon type resisted the Merino so energetically that, after a quarter of a century of successive crossings, it still reappeared, whereas the Aveyron sheep had long ceased to be distinguishable from the Merinos. The same potency of particular species is noticeable in plants. Koelreuter is quoted by Burdach as having fecundated the Nicotiana paniculata with the pollen of N. rustica; and the hybrids thus produced were fecundated with the pollen of N. paniculata, but the plants resembled the N. rustica. On reversing this experi

general potency of organization, must be taken into the account of complicating causes. This also will help to explain-but not wholly explain-the great differences observable in the same family: differences of sex, of strength, and appearance. At present, however, science can only take note of it as a "perturbing influence."

Our survey of this great subject, brief though it has been, has enabled us to note four general facts, which sum up the present state of knowledge, and which must be steadily borne in mind in all inquiries into Hereditary Influence :

1st. Heritage is constant: it is a law of organized beings that the organization of parents should be transmitted to their offspring.

2nd. The offspring directly represents both parents, and indirectly it represents its ancestors.

3rd. The offspring never represents its parents with absolute equality, although it represents them in every organ. Sometimes one parent predominates in one system, sometimes in another, sometimes in all.

4th. The causes of this predominance are various, some being connected with "potency" of race, or individual superiority in age, vigor, &c.; others being, in the present state of knowledge, not recognizable.

Leaving these facts without any hypothetical explanation for the present, let us pass on to a consideration of the meaning of the Law of Variation, which we have

Constancy. But we see it producing un-cated even by Cuvier. That Bonnet, Hallike, and the variation must have its cause. ler, and lesser men, should have been seDevelopment, whether taking place in a duced by such a theory, is not remarkable simple tissue or in the whole organism, when we consider the state of knowledge must proximately arise from some altera- in their days; but after C. F. Wolff, Blution in the series of organic combinations. menbach, and Von Baer, had utterly reA cellular tissue would never develope in- futed it, and replaced it by the sounder to a nerve tissue, unless some new element theory of epigenesis, to find Cuvier still were introduced into its composition. A giving it the sanction of his great name, whole dynasty of blockheads would never is a point to be remembered in the hisproduce a man of genius by intermarriage tory of opinion. At the present day, we with blockheads; the intermarriage must believe no one of any authority maintains introduce "new blood." There is no the theory of pre-existence. The microchance in Nature. If two parents pro- scope plainly shows us that, at first, the duce a child which is unlike them both, embryo is not like the adult animal in any this child is not an accident: the unlike- respect; the resemblance grows as develness consists in the new combination of opment goes on; the presence of one orold elements. The cipher which stood gan determines the presence of another; before the numeral, thus, 01, has been and, in the earlier stages, we can not tell transposed, and we have 10 as the result. whether the embryo is that of a fish, a Nature transposes in this way. Out of reptile, a bird, or a mammal, much less several elements of carbon, hydrogen, and what kind of fish, reptile, bird, or mamoxygen, in the same proportions, she will mal. It is the immortal honor of C. F. arrange substances so various as starch, Wolff to have demonstrated the great gum, and * We need not be sur-law of epigenesis, by which the parts of sugar. prised, then, if, with elements so complex an animal are made one after another, and as those of an organism, a great variety of combination is produced; and, far from marvelling because children sometimes are unlike their parents, the marvel truly is that they are ever like them.

When it was believed that animals preexisted in the germs of the original parents, the difficulty of accounting for variations, such as deformities and malformations, was either ignored, referred to "Satanic agency," or eluded by the conveninent supposition that deformed germs also pre-existed. Still there were troublesome facts not to be so got rid of. There were hybrids, for example. No one could say that there were pre-existent germs which were half horse and half donkey, or half wolf and half dog, or quarter wolf and three quarters dog.

out of the other; so that each organ may be considered as a secreting organ with respect to the others. Treviranus subsequently adopted this idea of each organ having, as it were, a secretory function The old theories could make nothing of with respect to the others; and Mr. Paget these variations; they quietly ignored has luminously expanded it in his masterly them. The once dominant, and still fam-"Lectures on Surgical Pathology." ous theory of the "pre-existence of germs," which lingers in the popular expression of "the oak being contained in the acorn," maintained that the embryo is the animal in miniature. The early microscopists observing the gradual appearance of the organs, jumped to the conclusion that the organs pre-existed in the ovum, and were gradually unfolded to view as they became larger. Indeed, when we see an egg by no means increased, either in size or weight, suddenly open, and a fullformed chick emerge, the idea that the chick was pre-existent in that liquid mass which once constituted the egg, seems plausible enough. Swammerdam and Malebranche pushed this notion to its logical conclusion, and declared that not only was the embryo a miniature of the adult, but the first created embryo of each species necessarily contained within itself all the germs of the future race; so that each generation included all subse

min the fomona

We will not, however, linger over such hypothesis, anxious as we are to glance at matters of more practical interest; among them, the very important question of hereditary insanity. Every one is familiar with the fact of the transmission of

"Theoria Generationis," 1759; and in a more

popular version of the same work, "Theorie von der

Generation." We have never seen the first-named