CURIOUS FACTS OF INHERITANCE. 689 



not that any peculiarity should be inherited, but that any should fail 

 to be inherited ; and Darwin remarks that the most correct way of 

 viewing the whole subject would be to look at the inheritance of every 

 character as the rule, and non-inheritance as the anomaly. 



It is obvious that instances of inheritance are most likely to be 

 noticed and recorded when the inherited peculiarity is striking and 

 abnormal. Countless instances of inheritance come under our notice 

 almost every day ; but the vast majority of them are too slight and 

 insignificant to attract attention. A slight peculiarity of feature, 

 complexion, or voice will readily pass unnoticed ; but if a striking 

 deformity be inherited, or some disease pursue a family through sev- 

 eral generations, it can hardly escape the most careless observation. 

 Cases are on record of families whose members were characterized by 

 the possession of a supernumerary digit on the hands and feet, and 

 this remarkable peculiarity has been transmitted through five genera- 

 tions, showing how strong is the force of inheritance even in such a 

 minor detail of structure. A still more singular instance is that of 

 Lambert-, the well-known " porcupine-man," whose skin was thickly 

 covered with warty projections, which were periodically molted. He 

 had six children, who were similarly affected ; and two of his grand- 

 sons inherited the strange peculiarity. The writer is acquainted with 

 a gentleman who has a marked drooping of the left eyelid. His son 

 inherits this peculiarity, but in a less remarkable degree. One of the 

 most singular instances of inheritance is that recorded by Decandolle. 

 There was a family in France of which the leading representative 

 could, when a youth, pitch several books from his head by the move- 

 ment of the scalp alone, and he used to win wagers by performing 

 this feat. His father, uncle, grandfather, and his three children pos- 

 sessed the same power to the same unusual degree. This family be- 

 came divided eight generations ago into two branches, so that the 

 head of the above-mentioned branch is cousin in the seventh degree 

 to the head of the other branch. This distant cousin resided in 

 another part of France, and on being asked whether he possessed the 

 same faculty, immediately exhibited his power. 



Haller, the celebrated physiologist, records that the family of the 

 Bentivoglio all possessed a tumor which used to swell when a damp 

 wind blew, and this strange peculiarity was transmitted from father 

 to son. The frequency among the Romans of surnames indicating 

 some physical peculiarity — Naso, Labeo, Bucco, Capito — would seem 

 to show that the fact of certain types of feature being transmit- 

 ted through several generations had already been remarked. This 

 fact lies almost unnoticed under many current forms of expression. 

 We speak of a certain type of face being aristocratic or the reverse, 

 by which we mean that physical features characterizing certain classes 

 are transmitted so surely as to become the recognized a])panage of 

 those classes. The aristocracy of Western Europe pride themselves 

 VOL. xxxn. — 44 



