Chap. XII. 



INHERITANCE. 



451 



fingers still moving, to the sides of her face, in exactly the 

 same manner as her father had done, and sometimes even 

 still continued to do so when alone. I never heard of any one, 

 excepting this one man and his little daughter, who had this 

 strange habit ; and certainly imitation was in this instance 

 out of the question. 



Some writers have doubted whether those complex mental 

 attributes, on which genius and talent depend, are inherited, 

 even when both parents are thus endowed. But he who will 

 study Mr. Galton's able work on ' Hereditary Genius ' will have 

 liis doubts allayed. 



Unfortunately it matters not, as far as inheritance is con- 

 cerned, how injurious a quality or structure may be if com- 

 patible with life. No one can read the many treatises n on 

 hereditary disease and doubt this. The ancients were strongly 

 of this opinion, or, as Eanchin expresses it, Omnes Grceci, Arabes, 

 et Latini in eo consentiunt. A long catalogue could be given of 

 all sorts of inherited malformations and of predisposition to 

 various diseases. With gout, fifty per cent, of the cases 

 observed in hospital practice are, according to Dr. Garrod, 

 inherited, and a greater percentage in private practice. Every 

 one knows how often insanity runs in families, and some of 

 the cases given by Mr. Sedgwick are awful, — as of a surgeon, 

 whose brother, father, and four paternal uncles were all 

 insane, the latter dying by suicide ; of a Jew, whose father, 

 mother, and six brothers and sisters were all mad ; and in 

 some other cases several members of the same family, during 

 three or four successive generations, have committed suicide. 

 Striking instances have been recorded of epilepsy, consump- 



11 The works which I have read 

 and found most useful are Dr. Prosper 

 Lucas's great work, 'Traite de 

 l'Heredite Naturelle,' 1847 ; Mr. W. 

 Sedgwick, in ' British and Foreign 

 Medico-Chirurg. Review,' April and 

 July, 1861, and April and July, 1863 : 

 Dr. Garrod on Gout is quoted in these 

 articles. Sir Henry Holland, ' Medical 

 Notes and Reflections,' 3rd edit. 1855. 

 Piorry, ' De l'Heredite dans les 

 Maladies,' 1840. Adams, 'A Philo- 



sophical Treatise on Hereditary Pe- 

 culiarities,' 2nd edit., 1815. Essay 

 on ; Hereditary Diseases,' by Dr. J. 

 Steinan, 1843. See Paget, in 'Medical 

 Times,' 1857, p. 192, on the Inheri- 

 tance of Cancer; Dr. Gould, in 

 ' Proc. of American. Acad, of Sciences,' 

 Nov. 8, 1853, give3 a curious case of 

 hereditary bleeding in four genera- 

 tions. Harlan, ' Medical Researches,' 

 p. 593. 



