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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



the purely hexadaetylic members of the Colburn , 

 family, in the third and fourth generations, had I 

 migrated to some desert island, and had been 

 careful not only to exclude all visitors having the 

 normal number of fingers and toes, but to send 

 away before the age of puberty all children of 

 their own which might depart in any degree from 

 the pure hexadaetylic type, there can be no doubt 

 that under favorable conditions the colony would 

 have become a nation of six-fingered folk. Among 

 such a nation the duodecimal system of notation 

 would flourish, and some remarkable performers 

 on the piano-forte, flute, and other instruments, 

 might be looked for ; but we do not know that 

 they would possess any other advantage over 

 their pentadactylic contemporaries. Seeing that 

 the system of colonizing above described is ante- 

 cedently unlikely, and that no special advantage 

 could be derived from the persistence of any 

 hitherto- known abnormal variety of the human 

 race, it is unlikely that for many generations yet 

 to come we shall hear of six-fingered, hairy-faced, 

 horny-skinned, or harelipped nations. The only 

 peculiarities which have any chance of becoming 

 permanent are such as, while not very uncom- 

 mon, stand in the way of intermarriage with per- 

 sons not similarly affected. A similar remark, as 

 will presently appear, applies to mental and moral 

 characteristics. The law according to which con- 

 trast is found attractive and similitude repugnant, 

 though wide in its range, is not universal ; and 

 there are cases in which resemblance, if it has 

 not the charm found (under ordinary circum- 

 stances) in contrast, is yet a necessary element in 

 matrimonial alliances. 



The inheritance of constitutional traits comes 

 next to be considered. It is probably not less 

 frequently observed, and is in several respects 

 more interesting than the inheritance of peculiari- 

 ties of bodily configuration. 



Longevity, which maybe regarded as meas- 

 uring the aggregate constitutional energy, is well 

 known to be hereditary in certain families, as is 

 short duration of life in other families. The best 

 proof that this is the case is found in the action 

 of insurance companies in ascertaining tli rough 

 their agents the longevity of the ancestors of 

 persons proposing to insure their lives. Instances 

 of longevity during several successive generations 

 are too common to be worth citing. Cases in 

 which, for generation after generation, a certain 

 age, far short of the threescore years and ten, has 

 not been passed, even when all the circumstances 

 have favored longevity, are more interesting. One 

 of the most curious among these is the case of 



the Turgot family, in which the age of fifty-nine 

 had not been for generations exceeded, to the 

 time when Turgot made the name famous. At 

 the age of fifty, when he was in excellent health, 

 and apparently had promise of many years of 

 life, he expressed to his friends his conviction 

 that the end of his life was near at hand. From 

 that time forward he held himself prepared for 

 death, and, as we know, he died before he had 

 completed his fifty-fourth year. 



Fecundity is associated sometimes with lon- 

 gevity, but in other cases as significantly asso- 

 ciated with short duration of life. Of families in 

 which many children are born but few survive, 

 we naturally have less striking evidence than we 

 have of families in which many children of strong 

 constitutions are born for several successive gen- 

 erations. What may be called the fecundity of 

 the short-lived is a quality commonly leading in 

 no long time to the disappearance of the family 

 in which it makes its appearance. It is the re- 

 verse, of course, with fecundity in families whose 

 members show individually great vigor of consti- 

 tution and high vital power. Kibot mentions sev- 

 eral cases of this sort among the families of the 

 old French noblesse. Thus Anne de Montmorency 

 — who, despite his feminine name, was certainly 

 by no means feminine in character (at the battle 

 of St.-Denis, in his sixty-sixth year, he smashed 

 with his sword the teeth of the Scotch soldier 

 who was giving him his death-blow) — was the fa- 

 ther of twelve children. Three of his ancestors, 

 Matthew I., Matthew II., and Matthew III., had 

 in all eighteen children, of whom fifteen were 

 boys. " The son and grandson of the great Con- 

 de had nineteen between them, and their great- 

 grandfather, who lost his life at Jarnae, had ten. 

 The first four Guises reckoned in all forty-three 

 children, of whom thirty w r ere boys. Achille de 

 Harley had nine children, his father ten, and his 

 great-grandfather eighteen." In the family of the 

 Herschels, in Hanover and in England, a similar 

 fecundity has been shown in two generations out 

 of three. Sir W. Herschel was one of a family 

 of twelve children, of whom five were sons. He 

 himself did not marry till his fiftieth year, and 

 had only one son. But Sir John Herschel was 

 the father of eleven children. 



Of constitutional peculiarities those affecting 

 the nervous system are most frequently trans- 

 mitted. We do not, however, consider them at 

 this point, because they are viewed ordinarily 

 rather as they relate to mental and moral char- 

 acteristics than as affections of the body. The 

 bodily affections most commonly transmitted are 



