Mendelism 273 



clotting of the blood resulting in the persistent bleeding of 

 wounds, cretinism or infantile imbecility and dwarfism, and 

 many others. 



But the picture has also a brighter side, for physical and 

 mental ability are inherited just as surely as are their oppo- 

 sites. The families of the Edwards, the Lees, the Corbins 

 and the Fitzhughs have put the stamp of beauty and of 

 strength upon the face of America. The family of the great 

 musician Bach included twenty eminent musicians, and twice 

 as many of lesser eminence. 



Macaulay's father and grandfather, two uncles, a cousin 

 and a nephew were all noted writers. The records of the 

 Pomeroy family date back to 1630. "The first of the family 

 in America was Eltweed Pomeroy at Dorchester . . . and 

 later at Windsor, Connecticut. He was by trade a black- 

 smith, which in those days comprehended practically all 

 mechanical trades. His sons and grandsons, with few excep- 

 tions, followed this trade. 'In the settlement of new towns 

 in Massachusetts and Connecticut the Pomeroys were welcome 

 artisans. Large grants of land were awarded to them to 

 induce them to settle and carry on their business. ' ' The pecu- 

 liar faculty of the Pomeroys is not the result of training and 

 hardly of perceptible voluntary effort in the individual. 

 Their powers are due to an inherited capacity from ancestry 

 more or less remote, developed for generations under some 

 unconscious cerebration.' There was Setli Pomeroy (1706- 

 1777) an ingenious and skillful mechanic who followed the 

 trade of gunsmith. At the capture of Louisburg in 1745 he 

 was a major and had charge of more than twenty smiths who 

 were engaged in drilling captured cannon. Other members 

 of the family manufactured guns which in the French and 

 Indian wars were in great demand and in the Revolution, 

 also, the Pomeroy guns were indispensable. 'Long before the 

 United States had a national armory, the private armories 

 of the Pomeroys were famous. There was Lemuel Pomeroy, 

 the pioneer manufacturer of Pittsburg, stubborn but clear- 

 headed, of whom a friend said : ' There would at times be no 

 living with him if he were not always right. ' There was also 

 Elisha M. Pomeroy of Wallingford, a tinner by trade. He 

 invented the razor strop and profited much by its success. 

 In the sixth generation we find Benjamin Pomeroy a suc- 

 cessful lawyer entrusted with important public offices. 'But 

 he was conscious of powers for which his law practice gave 

 him no scope. He had a taste for mechanical execution 

 and as a pastime between his professional duties undertook 

 the construction of difficult public works — the more difficult 

 the better he liked them. The chief of the United States 



