REVERSION. 53 



active and efficacious in the case of disease as in other 

 variations as effectual in calling back the pathological 

 wanderer to the true path as it is in the case of the 

 physiological; and here lies our greatest hope. It is 

 the most cheering fact met with in the study of heredity. 

 Here we have Nature standing by our side, ever ready 

 to assist us in any effort we may make to purify the 

 race. Disease is but "the sins of the father visited 

 upon the children," and if we will but make an effort 

 to clear ourselves of the stain, Nature, ever kind, will 

 go hand in hand with us, and aid us at every step in 

 our good work. 



Disease is foreign to Nature it is an acquired char- 

 acter ; and from the fact that when transmitted it so 

 soon, in most cases, attains the necessarily fatal form, 

 it can never have much fixity. Consequently, in all 

 cases in which the disease has not already gained too 

 great a hold, on the infusion of untainted blood rever- 

 sion to the normal, i.e., healthy, is the rule. In this 

 connection, because of its healing or cleansing effect, 

 reversion has been called the vis medicatrix natures, 

 and it is of incalculable assistance to us in any efforts 

 of ours to exterminate hereditary disease. But it 

 cannot overbear the laws of hereditary transmission. 

 If the scrofulous will marry the scrofulous, and the 

 insane the insane, this benign law is powerless, and the 

 diseased family, going from bad to worse, must become 

 extinct. But if man will not ignore and try to over- 

 ride the laws of Nature, which he can only ignore at 

 his own cost, and which he can never over-ride if he 



