918 OF GENERATION ACTION OF THE FEMALE. 



times even where there are no more than two children), 1 it will be observed 

 that the likeness to the father predominates in some of the children, and the 

 resemblance to the mother in others. Still it is rare to meet with instances 

 in which some distinctive traits of both parents may not be traced in the off- 

 spring ; these traits often showing themselves in peculiarities of manner and 

 gesture, in tendencies of thought or feeling, in proneness to particular con- 

 stitutional disorders, etc., even where there is no personal resemblance, and 

 where there has been no possibility that these peculiarities should have been 

 gained by imitation. And even when they are overborne, as it were, in the 

 immediate progeny, by the stronger influence derived from the other side, 

 they will often reappear in a subsequent generation (as in the case just 

 cited), constituting the phenomenon known as Atavism. 



768. The influence of both Parents on the constitution of the Offspring is 

 strikingly manifested, not merely in the admixture of their characters nor- 

 mally displayed by the latter, but also in the tendency to the hereditary 

 transmission of perverted modes of functional activity which may have been 

 habitual to either. The diseases which are usually considered to be most 

 prone thus to reappear in successive generations, are Scrofula, Gout, Syphilis, 

 and Insanity ; but it can scarcely be doubted that many others might be 

 added to this list. 2 The predisposition may have been congenital on the part 

 of the parents, or it may have been acquired by themselves, as in the case of 

 Epilepsy transmitted by guinea-pigs in whom the sciatic nerve has been 

 divided, to their young [Eugene Dupuy has found that guinea-pigs, in which 

 the cervical Sympathetic has been cut, transmit the peculiar changes pro- 

 duced by such section] ; and in no case is this more obvious than in the in- 

 fluence of Alcoholic excesses on the part of one or both parents, in producing 

 Idiocy, a predisposition to Insanity, or weakness and instability of Mind, in 

 the children, this being especially the case where both parents have thus 

 transgressed. Thus out of 359 Idiots, the condition of whose progenitors 

 could be ascertained, it was found that no fewer than 99 were the children 

 of absolute drunkards; and there was reason to believe that a large propor- 

 tion of the parents of the remainder were more or less intemperate, only 

 about a quarter of the whole number of idiots having been found to be the 

 children of parents who were known to be temperate. 3 And it is perfectly 

 well known to those who are conversant with Insanity, that of all the " pre- 

 disposing causes" of that disorder, habits of intemperance on the part of 

 either or both parents are among the most frequent. The intensification 

 which almost any kind of perversion of Nutrition derives from being com- 

 mon to both parents, is most remarkably evinced by the lamentable results 

 which too frequently accrue from the marriage of individuals nearly related 

 to each other, and partaking of the same " taint." Such results must have 

 fallen within the knowledge of almost every one possessing an extended field 

 of observation ; but they are brought out with fearful vividness by the un- 

 erring test of properly-collected Statistics. For out of the 359 idiots just 

 referred to, 17 were known to have been the children of parents nearly re- 



1 One of the most remarkable cases of this kind known to the Author, is that of 

 two Sisters, who sooin to resemble each other in no one point of configuration or 

 mental character ; but of whom one bears a most striking resemblance, both in per- 

 s"n and in mind, to her Father; whilst the other no less strikingly resembles her 

 Mother. The only peculiarities which at ail indicate their relationship, arc a gouty 

 diathesis which they both inherit from their father, and an idiosyncrasy in regard to 

 opium, of which neither is able to take even a small dose (in any form whatever) 

 without vomiting. 



2 See the very interesting and suggestive Chapter, On Hereditary Disease, in Sir 

 H. Holland's Medical Notes and Reflections. 



3 See Df. Howe's Report on Idiocy to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 1848. 



