SEVEN PRINCIPAL LAWS OF HEREDITY. 233 



5. There is a form of heredity which may be 

 called the pre-marital, and it is seen when the child 

 of a second or third marriage resembles the husband 

 in a previous marriage. 



6. A form of heredity which may be called pre- 

 natal is observed where good or bad, fortunate or un- 

 fortunate influences, which have powerfully affected 

 the mother as such, are exhibited in good or bad re- 

 sults of the greatest importance in the life of the 

 offspring. It is said that the mother of Napoleon 

 read Plutarch's Lives and other heroic literature, and 

 that her moods of mind were transferred to her son. 

 This law, as to the existence of which all the ages 

 are agreed, is pre-natal heredity ; and the range of it 

 is limited to the real pre-natal life of the child. 



7. Lastly, we have what probably is the most im- 

 portant form of inheritance except the first. I call it 

 initial heredity, because this portion of the laws of 

 hereditary descent turns upon the temporary mood, 

 good or bad, fortunate or unfortunate, of parents 

 when they become such. Ribot, in his elaborate 

 work on Heredity (p. 147, American edition), men- 

 tions only four of these laws. He omits the fourth, 

 the sixth, and the seventh ; and his analysis is there- 

 fore curiously incomplete. I am not aware that the 

 seventh has ever been called by the name here given 

 to it. The first, the fourth, and the last of the seven 

 forms of heredity, are undoubtedly the most power- 

 ful of the circumstances which determine the horo- 

 scope of our lives. 



Never shall I forget standing in the hall of busts 



