HEREDITARY TRAITS. 207 



parental traits are inherited, or seemingly sudden variations 

 introduced. 



The commonest, and therefore the least interesting, 

 though perhaps the most instructive of the phenomena of 

 heredity, are those affecting the features and the outward 

 configuration of the body. These have been recognised in 

 all ages and among all nations. A portion of the Jewish 

 system of legislature was based on a recognition of the law 

 that children inherit the bodily qualities of the parents. 

 The Greeks noted the same fact. Among the Spartans, 

 indeed, a system of selection from among new-born children 

 prevailed, which, though probably intended only to eliminate 

 the weaker individuals, corresponded closely to what would 

 be done by a nation having full belief in the efficacy of both 

 natural and artificial selection, and not troubled with any 

 strong scruples as to the method of applying their doctrines 

 on such matters. Among the Romans we find certain 

 families described by their physical characteristics, as the 

 Nasones or Big-nosed, the Labeones or Thick-lipped, the 

 Capitones or Big-headed, the Buccones or Swollen-cheeked. 

 In more recent times similar traits have been recognised in 

 various families. The Austrian lip and the Bourbon nose 

 are well-known instances. 1 



Peculiarities of structure have a double interest, as illus- 

 trating both variation and persistence. We usually find 

 them introduced without any apparent cause into a family, 

 and afterwards they remain as hereditary traits, first inherited 

 regularly, then intermittently, and eventually, in most cases, 

 dying out or becoming so exceptional that their occurrence 

 is not regarded as an hereditary peculiarity. Montaigne 

 mentions that in the family of Lepidus, at, Rome, there were 

 three, not successively but by intervals, that were born with 

 tne same eye covered with a cartilage. At Thebes there 

 was a family almost every member of which had the crown 

 of the head pointed like a lance-head ; all whose heads were 



1 It is said by Ribot that of all the features the nose is the one 

 which heredity preserves best. 



