BOOK VII. XI. 48-xii. 51 



twelve infants were still-born at once. When, 

 however, a moderate interval of time separates tvvo 

 conceptions, both may be successful, as was seen in 

 the instance of Hercules and his brother Iphicles and 

 in the case of the woman who bore twins of whom 

 one resembled her husband and the other an 

 adulterer ; and also in that of the maidservant of 

 Marmara who, as a result of intercourse on the same 

 day, bore one twin resembhng her master and 

 another resembling his steward, and that of another 

 woman who bore one twin at the proper period and 

 the other a five-months' child, and again of another 

 who after bearing a seven months' child was delivered 

 of twins three months later. 



It is also well known that sound parents may have TTansmU- 

 deformed childrcn and deformed parents sound 7acterisiics. 

 children or children with tlie same deformity, as the 

 case may be ; tliat some mai-ks and moles and evcn 

 scars reappear in the offspring, in some cases a birth- 

 mark on the arm reappearing in the fourtli generation 

 XII. (we are tokl that in the Lepidus family three 

 children were born, though not all in succession, with 

 a membrane over the eyes) ; and indeed that other 

 children have resembled their grandfather, and that 

 also there has been a case of twins of which one 

 resembled the father and the otlier the mother, and 

 one of a child who resembled his brother hke a twin 

 although born a year later. Also that some women 

 always bear children like themselves, some bear 

 children hke their husbands, some children with no 

 family hkcness, some a female cliild hke its fathcr 

 and a male child hke themselves. One unquestioned 

 instance is that of the famous boxer Nicaeus, born 

 at Istamboul, whose mother was the offspring of 



539 



