128 HEREDITY AND "ARRANGEMENT > ! 



happen that what may be looked upon as a variety 

 of the human race may arise, though when it 

 arises it is always easy to wipe it out and restore 

 things to the normal by the introduction of fresh 

 blood, to use the misleading term commonly 

 employed, where the Biblical word " seed " 

 comes much nearer to the facts. 



Thus there is a well-authenticated case in 

 France (in Brittany if I remember right) of a 

 six-fingered race which existed for a number of 

 generations in a very isolated place and was 

 restored to five-fingeredness when an increase in 

 the populousness of the district permitted a 

 wider selection in the matter of marriages. 



And similarly, not long ago an account was 

 published of an albino race somewhere in Canada 

 which had acquired a special name. 



Perhaps it has been wiped out by this time by 

 wider marriages, though these might be effected 

 with greater difficulty by albinos than by six- 

 fingered persons. At any rate no one can doubt 

 that it might at any time be wiped out by such 

 marriages, though even when apparently wiped 

 out, sporadic cases might be expected to occur : 

 what the breeders call " throws-back," when 

 they see an animal which resembles some ancestor 

 further back in the line of descent than its actual 

 progenitors. Certainly the most remarkable in- 

 stance of the reliance which we have come to feel 

 respecting this matter of inheritance is that which 

 was afforded by a recent case of disputed paternity 

 interesting on both sides of the Atlantic, since 

 the events in dispute occurred in America and 



