HEREDITY IN PHYSIOLOGY, IN MEDICINE, ETC. 341 



archal bond among them. This custom was observed till 

 toward the middle of the eighteenth century, and as many 

 as a hundred and twenty persons, men, women, and chil- 

 dren, of the name of Bach, were often seen together. In 

 that family are enumerated twenty-nine eminent musicians, 

 and twenty-eight of inferior repute. The father of Mozart 

 was second chapel-master to the Prince-bishop of Salzburg. 

 Beethoven's was a tenor in the chapel of the Elector of 

 Cologne. His grandfather had been a singer in the same 

 chapel, and afterward chapel-master. The parents of Ros- 

 sini used to perform music at fairs. 



We find that heredity intervenes almost as powerfully 

 and constantly in the transmission of those passions and 

 feelings, of a wholly different order, which produce vicious 

 inclinations. The taste for alcohol, the habit of debauchery, 

 the passion for gaming, gain a control over some persons 

 from their ancestors. " A lady among my intimates, pos- 

 sessing a large fortune," says Gama Machado, " had a pas- 

 sion for play, and passed her nights at the gaming-table ; 

 she died while young, of a pulmonary complaint. Her el- 

 dest son, who was like her in every respect, was equally mad 

 for gambling ; he, too, died of consumption, like his mother, 

 and at nearly the same age. His daughter, who resembled 

 him, inherited the same tastes, and died young." Heredity 

 in a disposition to theft, to rape, to assassination, to sui- 

 cide, has been noted in very many cases. 



In the degree in which we rise from purely physiologi- 

 cal or pathological regions to those in which mental activity 

 is more clearly present, heredity is observed to lose its force 

 and its uniformity. There have been families of savants, 

 as those of Cassini, Jussieu, Bernouilli, Darwin, Saussure, 

 Geoffroy, Pictet. In learning and literature we may men- 

 tion those of Estienne, Grotius, and a few others. The 

 Mortemart family were famous for their wit. A genius for 

 statesmanship, or for war, has sometimes been traced con- 



