1 8 THE NEXT GENERATION 



with smooth coat, with spots or bands or dashes of color, 

 in exact accord with the ancestors he chooses for them. 1 



In all this discussion, remember that there are many hybrid 

 mixtures of every kind of guinea pig, that hybrids are always 

 more abundant than pure-breds, and that when men hunt for 

 laws of inheritance, they are as careful as possible to start 

 with pure-bred ancestors. 



And because these laws of inheritance also affect human 

 beings, we are interested in them. Science is teaching that 

 each one of us is a bundle of combined characters. Shape 

 of head, of hands, and feet ; length of arm, of leg, and 

 backbone ; color of skin, of hair, of eyes ; turn of nose 

 and of jaw ; quality of brain-stuff ; type of temperament 

 all these are combined in different ways in each generation, 

 and some of the characters may be clearly traced back through 

 generation after generation of our ancestors. 



Speaking of this matter, Dr. Forel says : " In my own face 

 the two halves are distinctly different, one resembling my 

 maternal ancestor, and the other, in a lesser degree, my 

 paternal ancestor ; these points being seen distinctly in 

 photographs taken in profile." 2 He adds : "A person may 

 have his father's nose and his mother's eyes ; his paternal 

 grandmother's humor, and the maternal grandfather's intelli- 

 gence, and all with infinite degrees of variation, for it is only 

 a matter of more or less accentuated variations." 



Much less is known of mental than of physical inheri- 

 tance, nevertheless Dr. Forel shows how it may explain the 

 children of many a distinguished man. He says that "a 

 common woman will lower the level of the offspring of a 



1 All this is called w breeding for points." Nothing of the kind has been 

 done for human beings. 



2 Doubtless an unusual case. 



