ATAVISM. 79 



the same specimen, yet, as regards the inheritance of 

 disease, it will be found that the morbid characteristics 

 of one or the other parent are either completely re- 

 peated or completely absent, but not fused together in 

 the offspring. This is what is meant in inheritance 

 by the doctrine of < election,' which is based on the 

 observation that certain attributes of organization pe- 

 culiar to one parent are repeated in the offspring ; and 

 it offers a reasonable explanation of the fact that chil- 

 dren often inherit the defects of one parent, while in 

 many other respects they resemble the other ; and the 

 inheritance in these cases, both natural and morbid, 

 may sometimes be conveyed to them by atavic de- 

 scent." ' 



If it is admitted that the animal inherits an assem- 

 blage of peculiarities representing the aggregate of 

 parental characters, it must follow that all of the char- 

 acters of all ancestors are in like manner inherited, as 

 each generation would inherit and transmit the pecu- 

 liarities of the preceding generation, and this, in turn, 

 would inherit and transmit the peculiarities of the 

 next preceding, and so on indefinitely. The phenom- 

 ena of atavism seem to show that we cannot set a 

 limit to the inheritance of characters. Theoretically, 

 a defect or peculiarity may be "bred out," as it is 



1 British and Foreign Medico- Chirurgical Review, July, 1863, pp. 

 190, 191. As an illustration of the distinct inheritance of qualities, 

 the case is given of " the scarce egger-moth, observed by Mr. West- 

 wood" ("Entomologist's Text-Book," p. 397, 1838), "at Berlin, in 

 which the front-part of the body and front-half of the wings were 

 half male and half female, and the hind-part and hind-wings half fe- 

 male and half male, the characters of the male and female insect being 

 exhibited on opposite quarters of this specimen." 



