Human Physiology. 219 



and strength, and another suffers all his life from disease and 

 pain; why one is gentle and conscientious, and another hard 

 and dishonest. We should have to know the secret history of 

 parents and ancestors, and to know the physical and moral 

 conditions of both parents before, and of the mother during 

 gestation. Peculiarities of features and even of habits, not 

 only of the parents, but of grand and great-grand parents, come 

 out in children ; and if these, why not all sorts of mental and 

 moral idiosyncrasies? Every effect must have its sufficient 

 cause, and our constitutions and characters are modified by a 

 great variety of circumstances, of many of which we have 

 probably no idea whatever. 



Some of these peculiarities are of a very curious and even 

 whimsical character. Milk is the natural diet of every infant 

 mammalian from bat to whale, and is a pleasant and healthful 

 food for adults; but some find it disagreeable and hurtful. 

 Cheese agrees with most persons, but on some it acts like 

 poison. Some cannot eat eggs, even in small quantities in 

 cakes and puddings, without violent illness. Honey produces 

 in some persons an eruption on the skin. Some cannot endure 

 the presence of a cat, even when it is not seen or heard, but 

 only felt to be in the vicinity. People are born with extrava- 

 gant likings or disgusts for certain fruits, or other articles of 

 diet. Some children have from infancy a great fondness and 

 urgent desire for animal food, and some such a disgust of it 

 that it is with great difficulty that they can be made to eat it, 

 and if left to their own tastes they never touch it through life. 

 One child has a perfect ear for music, another can never learn 

 to distinguish one tune from another. So of the power of 

 judging of forms and colours, and all artistic tastes and capa- 

 bilities. 



It is but too evident that great numbers of persons are born 

 with tendencies to disease, sometimes of the lungs, sometimes 

 of the heart, stomach, liver, kidneys, brain, or portions of the 



