276 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



breeders of our domestic animals. Of supernumerary 

 fingers and toes a common deformity in the human 

 species since the days of David, when " Jonathan, 

 the son of Shimeah, the brother of David," killed in 

 battle the Philistine of great stature, who " had on 

 every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, 

 four-and-twenty in number ; " of this deformity Sir 

 William Lawrence says : " If the six-fingered and six- 

 toed could be matched together, and the breed could 

 be preserved pure by excluding all who had not these 

 additional members, there is no doubt that a perma- 

 nent race might be formed, constantly possessing this 

 number of fingers and toes." * 



This assertion of Sir William might be imagined 

 by some to be extravagant, whereas it is, in reality, 

 well within the bounds of probability. The fact 

 that accidental peculiarities can be reproduced and 

 fixed as constant characters is well known, and con- 

 stantly taken advantage of by breeders. The best 

 instance of this which I can cite is that of the An con 

 sheep. The peculiarities of this variety of the sheep 

 family, which is now largely bred in America, first 

 appeared in a somewhat deformed lamb, born of 

 ordinary parents. " The first ancestor of this breed 

 was a male lamb, produced by a ewe of the common 

 description. This lamb was of singular structure, 

 and his offspring, in many instances, had the same 

 characters with himself : these were, shortness of the 



* "Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and Natural History of 

 Man." 



