126 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



SO did La Farn^se. Louis XVI, on the other hand, 

 was a true Saxon, more German than the Germans 

 themselves." 



The age and the health of parents have an import- 

 ant effect upon the offspring. Many authorities 

 assert that a child conceived in drunkenness is likely 

 to be epileptic, insane, obtuse, or idiot. Quatrefages 

 remarks : " At Toulouse in the course of my medical 

 career I met with an artisan and his wife, both sound 

 of mind and body, who had four children. The two 

 elder children were quick and intelligent ; the third 

 was half idiot and almost deaf; the fourth was like 

 the two elder. From the statements of the mother, 

 who was distressed beyond measure at her third 

 child's condition, I learnt that it had been conceived 

 while the father was under the influence of drink." 

 Dejerine not only supports this view, but states that 

 any temporary perversion of the cerebral state of 

 parents, however caused, at the time of conception, 

 affects the child. He instances the case of the 

 children conceived during the siege of Paris, who from 

 their weakly condition are called les enfants du siAge} 



Twins usually bear a closer resemblance to each 

 other than to their brothers and sisters born at a 



^ Loc. cit. 



