THROWING BACK 109 



up under different conditions, and in some instances 

 have never seen each other at all. Eibot in his 

 HiHdiU Psychologique says : " I know a nephew who 

 bears a striking resemblance to an uncle on his 

 mother's side. The resemblance is even more mental 

 than physical. Both parties had an early mental 

 development which ceased at the age of fifteen ; and 

 both subsequently fell into an inactive state that 

 unfitted them for any sustained effort. They have 

 tried various professions without being able to settle 

 down in any. What makes the case the more strik- 

 ing is that the uncle and nephew had never come 

 under each other's influence. The former had spent 

 the greater part of his life in Algeria ; the latter lived 

 in France in a very respectable and industrious 

 family. They had never, in fact, spent ten days of 

 their lives in each other's company. Their resem- 

 blance they derived from a common ancestor, their 

 father and grandfather." In all such cases the 

 " latent germ " plays a part. The son does not derive 

 his qualities from his father, but from an ancestor 

 whose characteristics have been transmitted in a 

 latent state through intervening generations. 



Of the latent germ Darwin remarks : " What can 

 be more wonderful than that the minute ovule of a 



