SECRETARY'S REPORT. 65 



day on change in any of the larger marts of trade. How is this ? 

 Just because the Jew is a " thorough-bred." There is with him no 

 intermarriage with the Gentile — no crossing, no mingling of his 

 organization with that of another. When this ensues " permanence 

 of race" will cease and give place to variations of any or of all 

 sorts. 



Some families are remarkable during long periods for tall and 

 handsome figures and striking regularity of features, while in oth- 

 ers a less perfect form, or some peculiar deformity reappears with 

 equal constancy. A family in Yorkshire is known for several gen- 

 erations to have been furnished with six fingers and toes. A family 

 possessing the same peculiarity resides in the valley of the Kenne- 

 bec in this State, and the same has reappeared in one or more 

 other families connected with it by marriage. 



The thick upper lip of the imperial house of Austria, introduced 

 by the marriage of the Emperor Maximillian with Mary of Butgundy, 

 has been a marked feature in that family for hundreds of years, and 

 is visible in their descendants to this day. Equally noticeable is 

 the " Bourbon nose" in the former reigning family of France. All 

 the Barons de Vessins had a peculiar mark between their shoulders, 

 and it is said that by means of it a posthumous son of a late Baron 

 de Vessins was discovered in a London shoemaker's apprentice. 



Haller cites the case of a family where an external tumor was 

 transmitted from father to son which always swelled when the 

 atmosphere was moist. 



A remarkable example of a singular organic peculiarity and of its 

 transmission to descendants, is furnished in the case of the English 

 family of " Porcupine men," so called, from having all the body ex- 

 cept the head and face, and the soles and palms, covered with hard 

 dark-colored excrescences of a horny nature. The first of these 

 was Edward Lambert, born in Suffolk in 1Y18, and exhibited before 

 the Eoyal Society when fourteen years of age. The other children 

 of his parents were naturally formed ; and Edward, aside from this 

 peculiarity, was good looking and enjoyed good health. He after- 

 wards had six children, all of whom inherited the same formation, 

 as did also several grand-children. 



Numerous instances are on record showing that even accidents 



do sometimes, although not usually, become hereditary. Blumen- 



bach mentions the case of a man whose little finger was crushed 



and twisted by an accident to his right hand. His sons inherited 



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