368 Heredity. 



that this heredity cannot be altogether explained by external causes, 

 by family traditions, or by secrets kept and transmitted. 



Thus in Grecian antiquity medicine was originally cultivated by 

 a few families. The Asclepiadae, or family of ^Esculapius, called 

 themselves the descendants of that god. They practised their art 

 in the Asclepia, and founded the schools of Cnidos, of Rhodes, 

 and of Cos Hippocrates \vas the seventeenth physician in his 

 family. 



The art of divination, the gift of prophecy, that high favour of 

 the gods, was by the Greeks supposed to descend generally from 

 father to son. This belief prevailed in Homeric times : Calchas 

 was descended from a family of soothsayers. 



The heredity of priesthood is found among many peoples who 

 have not known caste distinctions. It is seen in Mexico, in Judsea, 

 where the tribe of Judah alone supplied the priests, and even in 

 Greece. In the latter country, where the religion was essentially 

 local, and each city had its own gods, we find in most of the towns 

 some sacerdotal family at Delphi, the Deucalionidse and Bran- 

 chidse ; at Athens, the Eumolpidae, and so on. 



The conclusion to be drawn from all this is plain, that heredity 

 is a law of nature from which a people frees itself in proportion as 

 it grows in civilization. If we take one after another all the primi- 

 tive civilizations, India, Persia, Egypt, Assyria, Judsea, Peru, 

 Mexico, Greece and Rome, we shall often find in their earliest 

 period the institution of caste, and of hereditary professions, and 

 always that of classes. If, on the other hand, we notice how among 

 very highly civilized nations that is to say, those as far removed 

 as possible from nature the institution of caste and of hereditary 

 professions is quite impracticable, and how even classes have dis- 

 appeared; if we observe the advance toward liberty more and more 

 marked through the transformation of castes into classes, and the 

 abolition of classes, as also by the change from the heredity of 

 professions to corporations and to freedom of occupation; if, 

 furthermore, we remark how the influence of heredity is at first held 

 to be absolute (caste), then relative (class), finally, though perhaps 

 wrongly, as somewhat weak (the present period), we cannot but 

 admit that these facts disclose to us a curious antagonism between 

 heredity and free-will 



