HEREDITARY TRAITS. 



27 



nized in various families. The Austrian lip and 

 the Bourbon nose are well-known instances. 1 



Peculiarities of structure have a double inter- 

 est, as illustrating both variation and persistence. 

 We usually find them introduced without any ap- 

 parent cause into a family, and afterward they 

 remain as hereditary traits, first inherited regu- 

 larly, then intermittently, and eventually, in most 

 cases, dying out or becoming so exceptional that 

 their occurrence is not regarded as an hereditary 

 peculiarity. Montaigne mentions that in the 

 family of Lepidus, at Rome, there were three, 

 not successively but by intervals, that were born 

 with the same eye covered with a cartilage. At 

 Thebes there was a family almost every member 

 of which had the crown of the head pointed like 

 a lance-head, all whose heads were not so formed 

 being regarded as illegitimate. A better authen- 

 ticated case is that of the Lambert family. The 

 peculiarity affecting this family appeared first in 

 the person of Edward Lambert, whose whole 

 body, except the face, the palms of the hands, 

 and the soles of the feet, was covered with a sort 

 of shell consisting of horny excrescences. He 

 was the father of six children, all of whom, so 

 soon as they had reached the age of six weeks, 

 presented the same peculiarity. Only one of 

 them lived. He married, and transmitted the 

 peculiarity to all his sons. For five generations 

 all the male members of the Lambert family were 

 distinguished by the horny excrescences which 

 had adorned the body of Edward Lambert. 



A remarkable instance of the transmission ot 

 anomalous characteristics is found in the case of 

 Andrian Jeftichjew, who, three or four years ago, 

 was exhibited with his son Fedor Jeftichjew, in 

 Berlin and Paris. They were called in Paris 

 les hommes-chiens, or dog-men, the father's face 

 being so covered with hair as to present a strik- 

 ing resemblance to the face of a Skye terrier. 

 Andrian was thus described : 



" He is about fifty-five years of age, and is said 

 to be the son of a Russian soldier. In order to 

 escape the derision and the unkind usage of his 

 fellow-villagers, Andrian in early life fled to the 

 woods, where, for some time, he lived in a cave. 

 During this period of seclusion he was much given 

 to drunkenness. His mental condition does not 

 seem to have suffered, however, and he is on the 

 whole of a kindly and affectionate disposition. It 

 may be of interest to state that he is an orthodox 

 member of the Russo-Greek Church, and that, de- 

 graded as he is intellectually, he has very definite 



1 It is said by Ribot that of all the features the nose 

 is the one which heredity preserves best. 



notions about heaven and the hereafter. He hopes 

 to introduce his frightful countenance into the court 

 of heaven, and he devotes all the money he makes, 

 over and above his outlay for creature comforts, 

 to purchasing the prayers of a devout community 

 of monks in his native village, Kostroma, after his 

 mortal career is ended. He is of medium stature, 

 but very strongly built. His excessive capillary 

 development is not true hair, but simply an ab- 

 normal growth of the down or fine hairs which 

 usually cover nearly the entire surface of the hu- 

 man body. Strictly speaking, he has neither 

 head-hair, beard, mustache, eyebrows, nor eye- 

 lashes, their place being taken by this singular 

 growth of long, silky down. In color this is of a 

 dirty yellow ; it is about three inches in length all 

 over the face, and feels like the hair of a New- 

 foundland dog. The very eyelids are covered 

 with this long hair, while flowing locks come out 

 of his nostrils and ears. On his body are isolated 

 patches, strewed but not thickly with hairs one 

 and a half to two inches loner." 



Dr. Bertillon, of Paris, compared a hair from 

 Andrian's chin with a very fine hair from a man's 

 beard, and found that the latter was three times 

 as thick as the former ; and a hair from Andrian's 

 head is only one-half as thick as an average hu- 

 man hair. Prof. Virchow, of Berlin, made care- 

 ful inquiry into the family history of Andrian 

 Jeftichjew. So far as could be learned, Andrian 

 was the first in whom this wonderful hirsuteness 

 had been noticed. Neither his reputed father 

 nor his mother presented any peculiarity of the 

 kind, and a brother and sister of his, who are 

 still living, are in no way remarkable for capillary 

 development. The son Fedor, who was exhibited 

 in company with Andrian, was illegitimate, and 

 about three years of age. Andrian's legitimate 

 children, a son and a daughter, both died young. 

 Nothing is known of the former ; but the daugh- 

 ter resembled the father. 



" Fedor is a sprightly child " (said the account 

 from which we have already quoted), " and appears 

 more intelligent than the father. The growth 01 

 down on his face is not so heavy as to conceal his 

 features, but there is no doubt that when the child 

 comes to maturity he will be at least as hirsute as 

 his parent. The hairs are as white and as soft as 

 the fur of the Angora cat, and are longest at the 

 outer angles of the eyes. There is a thick tuft be- 

 tween the eyes, and the nose is well covered. 

 The mustache joins the whiskers on each side, 

 after the English fashion, and this circumstance 

 gives to accurate pictures of the child a ludicrous 

 resemblance to a well-fed Englishman of about 

 fifty. As in the father's case, the inside of Fedor's 

 nostrils and ears has a thick crop of hair. . . . 



