LESS IMPORTANT HEREDITARY AFFECTIONS. 313 



binism, heart-disease, club-foot, hare-lip, cleft-palate, 

 stuttering, &c., which are regularly and commonly 

 transmitted in families, but they call for no special 

 notice here. They follow the same laws of trans- 

 mission as do other hereditary characters, and the 

 frequency with which they appear in the offspring 

 depends upon how deeply they have been impressed 

 upon the organism by repeated transmission, and what 

 chance is given the vis medicatrix natures in wise 

 marriages of leading back to the original healthy 

 stock. Of course, in families in which any of these 

 or other imperfections appear, the intermarriage of 

 even very distant relatives should be prohibited. 



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