6i 



following facts will tend to show whether they are, or are 

 not hereditarily transmissible. 



Buffon says : " A horse that is naturally vicious, sulky, 

 and restive, will beget foals with the same character ; " a fact 

 of which every horse-breeder is well aware. 



Girou de Burzareingues says : " Heredity may, even in 

 animals, extend to their most whimsical peculiarities. A 

 hound taken from the teat, and bred far away from either 

 parent, was incorrigibly obstinate and gun-shy in circum- 

 stances where other dogs were easily excited. When a 

 bystander expressed his surprise, he was told that there was 

 nothing remarkable, 'his father was the same.'" I might 

 readily quote other and numerous instances bearing upon 

 the no less striking transmission of characters when races 

 and species are crossed, but I shall content myself by 

 observing that all such evidence of the heredity of pro- 

 pensities, instincts, and passions in animals, tends to show 

 that the same qualities are hereditarily transmissible in man, 

 as it does not necessitate the superficial explanations drawn 

 from education, example, habit, and all the external causes 

 which have been supposed to do duty for heredity. In 

 man, the universal consciousness of existence that inner 

 sense of touch whereby we are cognisant of the state of 

 our organs, of the tension or relaxation of our muscles, of 

 the state of weariness, pleasure, etc., is undoubtedly trans- 

 missible, and the heredity of certain strange propensities, 

 instincts, and dislikes, may be referred to such an uncon- 

 scious mode, underlying all consciousness and all thought. 

 Thus also may be explained the idiosyncrasies of families 

 and individuals as to the untoward effects of certain drugs, 

 etc. Montaigne, as is well-known, had an invincible repug- 

 nance for medicine of every kind, and this he asserts was 



