6 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



riably spring from human parents. No question 

 is ever raised as to whether "like produces like" 

 so far as it concerns the transmission of the char- 

 acteristics of the species. 



(2) Race peculiarities are also invariably trans- 

 mitted. The child of Caucasian parents — of the 

 pure stock — is always Caucasian in colour, in 

 figure, in mental aptitudes, in moral tendencies. 

 "A spaniel was ne'^er produced by a bull-dog," 

 nor a canary by an eagle. A Shetland pony 

 never gave birth to an Arab steed, nor a South- 

 ern mustang to the great dray-horses whose legs 

 of iron transport the produce of our cities. Pure- 

 blooded whites never have negro children, or vice 

 versa. 



(3) Family and individual characteristics are 

 also hereditary. The aquiline nose of the Bour- 

 bon family, the fecundity of the Guises and Mont- 

 morencies, the taste for natural history of the 

 Darwins, and the faculty — not to say genius — 

 of the Bachs for music are too well known to need 

 more than mention. On the fact that purely in- 

 dividual characteristics are hereditary are based 

 many of the rules of life insurance. Men expect 

 that children will resemble their parents, or not 

 very remote ancestors, as regards tendencies to 

 health or disease. 



