REVERSION. 55 



increased: or 'diminished in point of gravity at every 

 generation by marriage into healthy or tainted families, 

 and how a disease which has "run in a family" for 

 several generations is sometimes stamped out by a 

 few judicious, if chance, " crossings." Amongst the 

 domestic animals such crossings are judicious, they are 

 the outcome of thought and careful attention, and we 

 know how rapidly effective they are for good. Unfor- 

 tunately, in the case of man, when they do occur, they 

 are in nearly every case the result of chance. 



Nature is ever more ready to assist the doer of good 

 than the evil-doer, and if men and women would but 

 spend a thousandth part of the time, trouble, and 

 wealth, with a view to the improvement of the gene- 

 rations yet to come, that they do to encumber their 

 estates, the amount of human suffering would be 

 vastly reduced, and the world would be much healthier 

 and happier than it is. But so long as men and women 

 will set the hectic flush above the ruddy glow of health, 

 consider curve of lip or eyebrow of more importance 

 than mental power or moral worth, prefer length of 

 purse and social rank to the happiness of their children, 

 let sickly sentiment take the place of reason, " wilfully 

 frustrate the noble purposes of their being, and selfishly 

 ignore the laws of hereditary transmission," so long 

 shall the unfit be begotten, hereditary disease flourish, 

 and immense avoidable suffering continue in the world 

 as the sins of the fathers and mothers are visited upon 

 the innocent children. 



