CHAPTER VII 



THROWING BACK AND THE METAMOKPHOSES OF 

 HEREDITY 



Among members of the same family there is some- 

 times a total absence of family likeness. Brothers 

 and sisters may resemble neither their father nor their 

 mother nor each other, the difference extending to 

 their moral as well as to their physical nature. Dull 

 parents may have clever children, and clever parents 

 dull ones ; a well-grown couple may have puny off- 

 spring ; a vicious father and a colourless mother may 

 have a most exemplary son. In fact, no limit can be 

 set to the diversity of physique and character that 

 may exist within a family circle. The question then 

 arises, To what is this diversity due? We are as- 

 suming, of course, that the children between whom 

 the dissimilarity is noted have been brought up amid 

 the same physical and moral influences, for although 



