306 THE INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY. 



sister, had but one developed finger on each hand and but 

 two toes on each foot, and whose monstrosity re-appeared in 

 two daughters. And there is a case where the absence of 

 two distal phalanges on the hands was traced for two genera 

 tions. The various recorded instances in which there has 

 been transmission from one generation to another, of webbed- 

 fingers, of webbed-toes, of hare-lip, of congenital luxation of 

 the thigh, of absent patellae, of club-foot, &c., would occupy 

 more space than can here be spared. Defects in the 



organs of sense are also not unfrcquently inherited. Four 

 sisters, their mother, and grandmother, are described by 

 Duval as similarly affected by cataract. Prosper Lucas 

 details an example of amaurosis affecting the females of a 

 family for three generations. Duval, Graffe, Dufon, and 

 others testify to like cases coming under their observation.* 

 Deafness, too, is occasionally transmitted from parent to child. 

 There are deaf-mutes whose imperfections have been derived 

 from ancestors; and malformations of the external ears have 

 also been perpetuated in offspring. Of transmitted 



peculiarities of the skin and its appendages, many cases have 

 been noted. One is that of a family remarkable for enorm 

 ous black eyebrows; another that of a family in which 

 every member had a lock of hair of a lighter colour than the 

 rest on the top of the head; and there are also instances of 

 congenital baldness being hereditary. From one of our lead 

 ing sculptors I learn that his wife has a flat mole under 

 the foot near the little toe, and one of her sons has the same. 

 Entire absence of teeth, absence of particular teeth, and 

 anomalous arrangements of teeth, are recorded as traits that 

 have descended to children. And we have evidence that sound 

 ness and unsoundness of teeth are transmissible. 



The inheritance of tendencies to such diseases as gout, 



* While this chapter is passing through the press, I learn from Mr. White 

 Cooper, that not only are near sight, long sight, dull sight, and squinting, 

 hereditary; but that a peculiarity of vision confined to one eye is frequently 

 transmitted : re-appearing ill the same eye in offspring. 



