6 Heredity. 



illustrious, when he saw that fatal term approaching, remarked 

 though he had then every appearance of health and strength that 

 it was time for him to put his affairs in order, and to finish the 

 work he had then in hand, because in his family it was usual to 

 die at that age. He died in fact at the age of fifty-three. 



The immunity from contagious diseases, and especially from 

 small-pox, with which some families are endowed, is a well-estab- 

 lished fact 



Heredity may transmit muscular strength, and the various forms 

 of motor energy. In ancient times there were families of 

 athletes, and there have been families of prize-fighters. The 

 recent researches of Galton as to wrestlers and oarsmen show that 

 the victors generally belong to a small number of families among 

 whom strength and skill are hereditary. As for motor energy, 

 a point of special importance in horses, experience long ago taught 

 breeders that speed on the turf just like faulty action, or crib- 

 biting is transmitted. Among men there are families nearly all 

 of whose members are possessed of exquisite dexterity and grace 

 of movement. Heredity has oftentimes transmitted a talent for 

 dancing, of which the celebrated Vestris family is an example. 



It is the same with regard to the voice. Every animal possesses 

 the voice peculiar to its kind ; but even individual characteristics 

 are transmitted ; as, for instance, stammering, speaking through the 

 nose, and lisping. There are many families of singers, and there 

 are also families that have no ear at all for melody. Loquacity, too, 

 is hereditary : ' Most of the children of talkative persons,' says 

 Dr. Lucas, ' are chatterboxes from the cradle. Words idealess, 

 aimless, and unbridled appear in them to be prompted by a sort of 

 elastic spring over which they have no control. We once saw at a 

 friend's house a servant-girl of irrepressible loquacity. She would 

 talk to people, who could scarcely get in a word edgewise ; she 

 would talk to dumb beasts and to inanimate things ; she would 

 talk aloud to herself. She had to be sent away. " But," said she 

 to her employer, " it is no fault of mine : it comes to me from 

 my father ; the same fault in him drove my mother distracted ; 

 and one of his brothers was like me." ' 



The heredity of anomalies of organization is a well-ascertained 

 fact. One of the strangest and best known instances of this is 



