158 Heredity. 



1 A wild torn cat,' says Girou, 'and a domestic cat produced two 

 torn cats which were like their mother, and were gentle and 

 familiar like her, and one she-cat, which resembled the father, and 

 was wild like him, and far more shy than the other two kittens.' 



The same author states that hunters have a proverb which says, 

 Dog from bitch and bitch from dog (' Chien de chienm et chiennc 

 de chien), meaning that the mother's qualities are found in the son, 

 and the father's in the daughter. 



The Arabs, who think so much of the genealogy of their horses, 

 show a marked preference for blood on the female side over the 

 male side. 



We may also cite decisive facts drawn from the human race. 



' P was in the habit,' says Girou, ' of going to sleep with the 



right leg crossed upon the left. One of his daughters came into 

 the world with the same habit ; she constantly assumed that pos- 

 ture in the cradle, in spite of the resistance offered by the napkin, 



' I know several girls who resemble their fathers, and who from 

 them have inherited peculiar and extraordinary habits, not to be 

 attributed either to imitation or to education ; as also of boys who 

 from birth have borne a very striking resemblance, whether physi- 

 cally or morally, to their mothers ; but propriety forbids all detail 

 on this subject. 



' Here I would observe that the external and the moral resem- 

 blance of the son to the mother is far less frequent and less 

 perfect than that of the daughter to the father.' 



2. Mental disorders furnish a considerable number of cases 

 in support of cross heredity. These are to be found scattered 

 through the works of writers on insanity. Baillarger, in his Recher- 

 ches sur F Anatomic, la Physiologic, et la Pathologic du Systems 

 Nerveux, has endeavoured to go over the whole ground. In 571^ 

 cases observed, he found 246 of cross heredity and 325 of direct. . 

 The result, as we see, is not favourable to the thesis which 

 regards cross heredity as of the more frequent occurrence. The 

 author has not failed to draw this conclusion, which will be 

 hereafter examined. 



3. We need now to collect some facts from history, restricting 

 ourselves to well-known personages, and eliminating carefully all 

 cases in which hereditary transmission appears questionable. 



