Exceptions to the Law of Heredity. 195 



parents, of good station, in good health, and belonging to families 

 of good constitution, beget children of very low stature. A man 

 had by his wife eight children, of whom four were dwarfs. Be'be, 

 the famous dwarf of King Stanislas, and whose height was thirty- 

 three inches, was born in the Vosges of well-formed, vigorous, 

 healthy parents. The celebrated Polish gentleman, Borwslaski, 

 whose height was twenty-eight inches, had a brother and sister, 

 dwarfs like himself, and three other brothers, each five feet six 

 inches in stature. 1 



Such idiosyncrasies as the predominance of some one organ, 

 one of a viscus, or even of an entire system of organs, likewise 

 present curious instances of spontaneity. Family constitutions, as 

 P. Lucas remarks, very often begin with individuals, and the most 

 rooted constitutions, those that are most general in families, are 

 yet not those of all the members. 



We may quote especially, as remarkable facts of spontaneity, 

 those called by Zimmermann exceptions in temperament. He 

 has gathered several examples ; as, for instance, of a man who 

 suffered extreme agonies when his nails were clipped ; another 

 when his face was washed with a sponge. For some persons coffee 

 is an emetic, jalap a constipant. Hachn could not eat more than 

 seven or eight strawberries without falling into convulsions, and 

 Tissot could not swallow sugar without vomiting. 



But there is no need to cite a large number of such facts, if the 

 reader will bear in mind that peculiarities of organization con- 

 genital or natural varieties are necessarily exceptions to the law 

 of heredity. Thus polydactylism, ectrodactylism, harelip, and all 

 deformities of a similar nature, begin by a deviation from the 

 specific type. The celebrated case of Edward Lambert, ' the man- 

 porcupine,' may be remembered, whose parents were healthy and 

 well formed, but he transmitted his singular carapace to his chil- 

 dren. Thus we see from facts that heredity imposes its law even ' 

 on its own exceptions. 



Among animals all races which are not due to intercrossing, but 

 which spring from spontaneous variation, are at once the result of 

 innateness and heredity : of the former for their origin, of the latter 



1 Lucas, i. 1 08 ; Burdach, ii. 427. 



