120 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



Without gainsaying Girou's observations, later writers, 

 taking a wider survey of the facts, are disposed to 

 think that no absolute rule on this subject can be 

 laid down. Even when a mother's or a father's 

 characteristics are not apparent in a child, they are 

 probably present in a latent form, and capable of 

 being revived in the succeeding generation. A New- 

 foundland dog breeding with a retriever may have 

 a mixed litter, some of the pups being Newfoundlands 

 and others retrievers to all appearance. But these 

 pups are neither genuine Newfoundlands nor genuine 

 retrievers. The apparent Newfoundlands, if crossed 

 by genuine Newfoundlands, are apt to throw a litter 

 containing a strong admixture of the retriever, and 

 vice versd. And so with the moral nature. Darwin 

 quotes a case showing that a breed of harriers, crossed 

 with a bull-dog, retained the bull-dog's qualities of 



tliat 225 fathers transmitted the malady to 128 sons and 97 

 daughters, whereas 346 mothers transmitted it to 197 daughters and 

 149 sons. Official statistics presented to the French Government 

 in 1860 yield similar results. Of 1000 male lunatics, 128 derived 

 their insanity from their father, 110 from their mother, and 26 

 from both parents ; while of 1000 female lunatics, 130 derived 

 their insanity from their mother, 100 from their father, and 26 from 

 both parents. In these figures it will be seen there is a slight 

 tendency in favour of direct transmission from fiither to son, and 

 from mother to daughter. 



