332 NATURE AND LIFE. 



characteristics as mark the differences between races and 

 varieties are transmitted with less certainty and uniformity, 

 and the fact of the various transformations which these 

 may undergo from generation to generation is precisely the 

 one upon which a famous school of naturalists insists, in its 

 attempt to demonstrate, within certain limits, as to extent, 

 the utter change of organisms in the lapse of ages. Still 

 less fixed and amenable to rule is the reproduction of those 

 characteristics, not so general as those of race and species, 

 which may be looked on as peculiar to the individual. 

 Thus, as characteristics increase in peculiarity and special- 

 ty, escaping the law of heredity, the chances increase that 

 children will differ from their parents. Yet observation 

 and that as ancient as man himself is fixes the truth that 

 these completely personal characteristics may be transmit- 

 ted by generation. Within what limits, and under what 

 conditions ? This is the point that we must examine with 

 the wariest caution, for a question does not exist about 

 which there is a greater risk of slipping in perilous down- 

 ward paths. 



Heredity is peculiarly manifest in continuous existence 

 of pathological and physiological conditions. It is espe- 

 cially betrayed in the expression and features of the face. 

 The ancients took note of this ; hence, among the Romans, 

 the nasones, labeones, buccones, capitones, etc. The nose 

 is perhaps that one of all the features which heredity most 

 persistently maintains ; the Bourbon nose is famous. He- 

 redity shows itself also in fecundity and longevity. In 

 the old French nobility many families possessed immense 

 vigor in propagation. Anne de Montmorency, who, when 

 past seventy-five, was still strong enough to smash with 

 his sword the teeth of the Scotch soldier who gave him his 

 death-blow in the battle of Saint-Denis, was the father of 

 twelve children. Three of his ancestors, Matthew (1st), 

 Matthew (3d), and Matthew (3d), had among them eighteen 



