320 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



prominently into view. Then the parents themselves are pho- 

 tographed in detail : their appearance and physique, their 

 character, their disposition, their mental qualities, are set before 

 us in critical analysis ; and, finally, we are asked to observe how 

 much the father and mother respectively have transmitted of 

 their peculiar nature to their offspring — how faithfully the 

 ancestral lines have met in the latest product ; how myste- 

 riously the joint characteristics of the body and mind have 

 blended, and how unexpected, yet how entirely natural, a 

 combination is the result. These points are elaborated with 

 cumulative effect until we realize at last how little we are deal- 

 ing with an independent unit, and how much with a survival and 

 reorganization of what seemed buried in the grave." Here the 

 influence of heredity upon the conformation of both mind and 

 body is recognized. Mr. Drummond then continues : "In the 

 second place, we are invited to consider mere external in- 

 fluences ( = E) — schools and schoolmasters, neighbours, home, 

 pecuniary circumstances, scenery, and, by and by, the religious 

 and political atmosphere of the time. These, also, we are assured, 

 have played their part in making the individual what he is; we 

 can estimate these early influences in any particular case with 

 but small imagination if we fail to see how powerfully they 

 have moulded mind and character, and in what subtle manner 

 they have determined the character of the future life." Mr. 

 Drummond, be it noted, speaks only of the mental E, for a 

 biographer treats essentially of the mental, and only by the 

 way, as it were, of the physical, man. Innumerable illustrations 

 of this method might be given. The following will suffice. 

 The subject is Abraham Lincoln : — " He seldom spoke of his 

 early life, or of his parents ; but the researches of some of his 

 biographers have indicated the hereditary sources of his chief 

 characteristics* We know that the grandfather was a vigorous 

 backwoodsman, who died a violent death ; that his uncle was a 

 grim and determined man- slayer, carrying out for years the 

 blood feud provoked by the murder of his parent ; that his 

 mother was habitually depressed ; and that his father was a 

 favourite of both men and women, though a mere savage 

 when irritated, fond of fun, an endless story-teller, physically 

 * The italics are mine. 



