ATAVISM. 71 



the authority of Dr. Cotton : " A gentleman had, with 

 both dentitions, a double-tooth in place of the left- 

 second incisor in the upper jaw ; he was the only one 

 in the family of nine children who presented this pe- 

 culiarity, which he inherited from his paternal grand- 

 father, whom he so exactly resembled, even in the 

 form of the hands also, as often to have arrested the 

 attention of their acquaintance." 1 



The same authority says : " Borelli, quoted by 

 Rougemont, records the case of a well-made man who 

 was three times married, and whose father had been 

 lame ; the children of this man by his three wives 

 were all lame." a 



The following case of skin-disease (ichthyosis), re- 

 ported by Mr. Sedgwick, illustrates a singular feature 

 in the atavic transmission of disease, from the limit of 

 the defect to the male sex, while its transmission ap- 

 pears to be exclusively limited to females : " It first 

 occurred in the grandfather, who is still living, and 

 who has the disease in a very severe form ; it did not 

 appear in him, or it was not, at least, noticed, till he 

 was about seven or eight years old. 



" This man has had three sons and three daughters. 

 One son died at the age of five years, and one at the 

 age of seven years, both of whom were free from the 

 disease. The other son is living and past middle age, 

 but has shown no tendency to the disease. The three 

 daughters have all lived to grow up and marry, and 

 in them likewise the skin is unaffected. Two only of 

 the three daughters have had children. The eldest 

 daughter has had four, of whom the first-born, a girl, 



1 Loc. tit., April, 1863, p. 454. 8 Ibid., p. 464. 



