114 COMMON MODES OF INHERITANCE 



on which of the parents has the mysterious quaUty of " prepo- 

 tency " ; and it may be that the father is " prepotent " in regard 

 to some of the characters and the mother in regard to others. 

 A negro in Berhn had by a white woman seven daughters who 

 were markedly mulatto, and four sons who were white ; the 

 inheritance was " crossed," but other cases forbid us from 

 making any generalisation. 



It must be carefully kept in view that where the expression of 

 the inheritance markedly follows one parent, it does not in the 

 least follow that the corresponding contributions from the other 

 parent have been lost. It may be that the latter will reappear 

 in the next generation, having simply remained latent in the 

 custody of the germ-cells. And again, there are cases on record 

 where the young boy resembled the mother and the young 

 girl the father ; but as they grew up, the likeness was re- 

 versed — i.e. resemblances formerly obscure became dominant. 

 Such cases seem to warrant our insistence on the distinction 

 between the inheritance and the expression of the inheritance. 



Apart from a few cases well established statistically, such as the 

 prepotency of the father as regards stature in British families, it is 

 at present illegitimate to make general statements as to exclusive 

 inheritance. Whether the offspring takes after the father or the 

 mother in respect to particular characters probably depends on the 

 more or less unpredictable relative strengths of the corresponding 

 Parental contributions to the inheritance. 



Instances. — [a) De Quatrefages * discusses the well-known case 

 of Lislet-Geoffroy, a corresponding member of the Institute of 

 France. He was the son of a Frenchman and a not very in- 

 telligent negress, and inherited physical negroid characters from 

 his mother and high intellectual and moral qualities from his father. 

 Allowance muct, of course, be made for education, but it seems 

 fair to say that in this case the father was prepotent as regards 

 the cerebral endowment of the son. 



* Introduction a l' Etude des Races humaines, p. 184. 



