i8 



type is subject to the law of heredity no less than the 

 specific type." 



It must, however, be remembered that an exact likeness, 

 (either physical, mental, or moral, is never transmitted by 

 ^inheritance ; neither an exact likeness of either parent, nor 

 Van exact composite of both. All breeders of stock know 

 very well that if they wish to develop and perpetuate certain 

 qualities in the offspring, they must exercise the greatest 

 care in the selection of the parents ; and human beings, 

 however well-informed, are far too prone to forget that 

 similar laws are still more applicable to themselves. The 

 fact is, that as the law of inheritance of like qualities in the 

 lower animals manifests itself in simpler and less complex 

 channels than in the human species ; so, also, it is less largely 

 modified in the former than in the latter by laws of variation. 

 As Dr. Maudsley says : " There is always a principle of 

 variation at work in breeding, contesting the ground, as it 

 were, with a principle of heredity, the effects of which are so 

 great sometimes that resemblances are hidden or overborne 

 entirely. Now, as the human body is the most complex 

 organic substance in the world ' the most compounded mass 

 in nature,' as Bacon calls it it affords infinite scope for 

 modifications, neutralisations, and variations of qualities ; 

 and the reasons are obvious why we cannot predict results. 

 Countless variations may occur in each case. . . . Most 

 of these variations die with the individual ; but some of them, 

 meeting with fit surroundings, and being fostered thereby, 

 are propagated from one generation to another, and become 

 fixed qualities of the family stock. For the qualities of the 

 stock are deeper and more stable than those of the individual, 

 and the qualities of the species deeper and more stable than 

 those of the family. The law of heredity is most evident in 



