Chap. 10.] INSTANCES OF EESEMBLANCE. 145 



brj-o only five months old : and again, with another female, 

 who, having been delivered of one child at the end of seven 

 months, in due course, two months afterwards, brought forth 

 twins.^^ 



CHAP. 10. STEIZIXG INSTANCES OF EESEXBLANCE. 



It is universally known that well-formed parents often pro- 

 duce defective children; and on the other hand, defective 

 parents children who are well formed, or else imperfect in the 

 same part of the body as the parents. It is a well-known fact 

 also, that marks, moles, and even scars, are reproduced in mem- 

 bers of the same family in successive generations. The mark 

 which the Daci make on their arms for the purpose of de- 

 noting their origin, is known to last even to the foui'th genera- 

 tion.^^ 



(12.) We have heard it stated that three members of the 

 family of the Lepidi have been born, though not in an unin- 

 termpted succession, with one of the eyes covered with a 

 membrane. ^'^ AYe observe, too, that some children strongly re- 

 semble their grandfather, and that of twins one child is like the 

 father, while the other resembles the mother ; and have known 

 cases where a child that was born a j^ear after another, re- 

 sembled him as exactly as though they had been twins. Some 

 women have children like themselves, some like their husband, 

 while others again bear children who resemble neither the 

 one nor the other. In some cases the female children resemble 

 the father, and the males the mother. The case of Is^icseus, 

 the celebrated wrestler of Byzantium, is a well-known and un- 



55 Most of these statements appear to be taken from Aristotle, Hist. 

 Anim. — B. 



5s There has been much discussion respecting the meaning of this pas- 

 sage and the fact to which it refers. Aristotle, Hist. Anim., says, that 

 marks made on the arm are transmitted for three generations ; and Pliny, 

 in B. xxii. c. 2, informs us, that the Daci and the Sarmatge *'make 

 written marks upon their bodies." The same custom prevails among the 

 lower orders, sailors especially, in our own times. _^e may also remark 

 the analogy which it bears to the practice of tattooing, so general among 

 the Polynesian and other barbarous nations. — B. 



^7 The reader may be amused by a perusal of the collection of wonder- 

 ful cases of this kind, which has been made by Dalechamps ; see Lemaire, 

 vol. iii. p. 65, note 4. — B. 



VOL. II, L 



