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the kidneys, the chylo-poietic system, the liver, chronic and 

 acute infectious diseases, diseases of nutrition, and of the 

 locomotive organs, of the special senses, and of the skin, 

 and the result is now before the reader. If my examination 

 has served no other good, it has, at least, established in my 

 own mind the accuracy of the views herein enunciated, and 

 I can only hope that the mass of facts which I have brought 

 to bear on the affirmative side of the question may, at least, 

 serve as an inducement to other observers to take a livelier 

 interest in the subject. As far as the groups of diseases 

 which I have considered are concerned, it seems to me that 

 the facts recorded prove beyond a doubt that children inherit 

 from their parents not only their physiological and psycho- 

 logical nature modified in every case to some extent by 

 variability but also a predisposition to the constitutional 

 diseases or disorders from which they have suffered, and 

 that, in disease or in health, heredity is a factor of prime 

 importance. 



So far as I am aware a systematic attempt has never 

 before been made to trace the influence of heredity as an 

 important factor in the origin and development of the 

 diseases which afflict humanity, and if the facts which I 

 have adduced tend to prove that heredity influences them 

 all, and that because we owe our organic nature all that we 

 have and are, with the exception of the influences of our 

 environment to this universal law, therefore our morbid 

 predispositions spring from the same source, I shall be well 

 satisfied. I have sought to establish a parallelism between 

 physiology, psychology, and pathology as representing man 

 in health and disease, and I think I have succeeded in 

 showing that heredity governs these three aspects of his 

 organic nature and its condition. Be that as it may, heredity 



