HEREDITY. II 



The influence of this natural law begins with life 

 and only ends with death. The life of the individual 

 begins when a single cell from the male (the sperm) 

 meets with a single cell from the female (the ovum), 

 and this combination calls into being a new creature. 

 From this instant heredity is at work. That the new 

 creature thus produced should invariably grow up in 

 the gross and outward likeness of its parents is as 

 strange as it is at present inexplicable. But what is 

 still more wonderful is the fact that these two germ- 

 cells, these two microscopic masses of apparently homo- 

 geneous protoplasm, which convey from parents to 

 offspring the racial peculiarities of tj^e parents, have 

 the further power of transmitting to the children the 

 various individual peculiarities of the parents, as length 

 of limb, colour of hair, cast of features, Nor does 

 the marvellous stop even here, for these potent atoms 

 almost invariably convey to the offspring, as seen in 

 the human family, such infinitely complex and subtle 

 similarities as trick of gait, tone of voice, longevity, 

 liability to certain diseases and immunity against others, 

 together with mental qualities, and even moral bent. 



The child takes his life from his parents, and with 

 that life he takes a certain estate made up of moral, 

 mental, and physical characters. This estate must be 

 entered upon however encumbered; he is the heres 

 nccessarius of his parents ; he cannot renounce his claim 

 upon this estate and let it pass on to some other heir, 

 neither can he alienate his life-interest therein. He 

 takes it with his life, and only with his death does his 



