THE LAWS OF HEREDITY. 71 



to be handed down through many generations in the 

 male line than in the female, and must thus by repeated 

 transmission gain a prepotency in the male line. 



A good example of structural peculiarity transmitted 

 generation after generation in the same sex, or directly, 

 is the facial peculiarity seen in the present reigning 

 family of Austria, "the Hapsburg lip" of which we 

 have already spoken, which has been handed down 

 along the male line for a considerable number of 

 generations, seldom appearing in the female members 

 of the family, and apparently but slightly influenced 

 by the new female blood introduced with almost every 

 generation. A still more peculiar case was that of 

 Edward Lambert, " the human porcupine," as he was 

 called ; this man's skin was covered by warty projec- 

 tions which were periodically moulted. He had six 

 sons and two grandsons similarly affected, while the 

 females of the family escaped ; the two grandsons 

 mentioned having seven sisters who were free from the 

 peculiarity. 



To sum up, then, direct heredity is where the child 

 takes its nature or constitution from its parents ; where 

 no prominent character in the child is not to be found 

 in one or other parent. In these cases there is almost 

 invariably a preponderance of resemblance to one or 

 other of the parents, and this preponderance may run 

 either direct, that is, in the same sex from father 

 to son, and mother to daughter, or diagonally from 

 father to daughter, and from mother to son. Of these, 

 the former direct is decidedly the more common in 



