no MAN, — THE ANIMAL 



short as the first finger. The same peculiarity 

 is seen in the hand of the daughter. She is thus 

 said to inherit the length of her little finger from 

 her mother. This character is clearly like that 

 of one parent and not an intermediate length of 

 finger between the short finger of the mother and 

 the long one of the father. 



The distance between the bases of the thumb 

 and the first finger in the father's hand is pro- 

 portionately much more than this same distance 

 in the hand of the mother. The same distance 

 in the hand of the daughter, who is eleven years 

 old, is at least equal to that of her mother, and 

 when she is mature, will be much greater. This 

 characteristic she inherits from her father. There 

 are a number of other peculiarities in the hand of 

 the daughter that can be found in the hand of one 

 or the other of her parents. 



We thus come to recognize that the present-day 

 meaning of heredity deals with the normal and 

 natural form of the parts of our body as a similar 

 comparison of other regions reveals. But one 

 should recognize that the above description deal- 

 ing with form and shape is but partially complete. 

 It is equally instructive to make a comparison of 

 physiological characters, for the quality of these 

 processes is just as surely inherited as finger length. 

 This aspect of heredity has been over-emphasized 

 by popular writers who frequently assume the 



