THE LAW OF LIKENESS, AND ITS WORKING. 219 



during his convalescence. Lambert's children presented 

 the same peculiar skin-development, and the correlation 

 between parent and offspring in this case was most marked, 

 even in the date of the first appearance of the abnormality, 

 since the skin developed its scales in each of his children, as 

 in himself, about nine weeks after birth. In Lambert's 

 grandchildren this peculiarity was also well marked ; two 

 brothers, grandsons of Lambert, being exhibited in Germany 

 on account of their peculiar body-covering. 



The history of the Kelleias, a Maltese family, is no less 

 instructive than that of Lambert, as tending to prove the 

 distinct and specific operations of the laws of heredity. 

 Gratio Kelleia, whose history is given by Reaumur in his 

 " Art de faire e'clore les Poulets," as a kind of lesson in the 

 rearing of poultry, was a Maltese, who possessed six fingers 

 on each hand and six toes on each foot. His parents 

 possessed the ordinary number of digits, and hence the law 

 of variation may be regarded as operating in the case of 

 the human subject, as in the ancon sheep and in lower 

 animals still, in producing sudden and spontaneous devia- 

 tions from the normal type of a species or race. Kelleia's 

 family consisted of four children, the mother exhibiting no 

 abnormality of hands or feet. The eldest son, Salvator, 

 exactly resembled his father. George, the second son, had 

 five fingers and five toes, but his hands and feet were de- 

 formed. Andre', the third son, exhibited no abnormality; 

 and Marie, the daughter, had deformed thumbs. The 

 operation of the law of heredity was not especially marked 

 in this first generation, but its effects were of very striking 

 character in the second. To begin with the family of 

 Andre, none of his children exhibited any divergence from 

 the normal type. Of Marie's family, only one, a boy, had 

 six toes; his fingers being normal. Of George's four 

 children, one boy possessed hands and feet of ordinary 

 type ; one girl had six fingers on each hand, but, curiously 

 enough, six toes on the right foot only ; whilst the remaining 

 two girls had each six fingers and six toes on each hand 



