254 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 



retainers of the old family, and a gallery tilled with their 

 portraits. There is one portrait there — it is that of the inheri- 

 tor of the property in Elizabeth's time — on which I nsed 

 frequently to look with much interest from the peculiar char- 

 acter of the eyes. I will not venture to describe them 

 beyond observing that they not only looked at you, but, as it 

 were, into you. There is not in that gallery a single portrait 

 with a similar eye. The portraits of two sons hung by the 

 side of the father^ but they have not the father's eye. The 

 portrait of the father of the present proprietor is there also, 

 but he has not the eye of his ancestor, but curiously enough 

 the present proprietor has the eye of the ancestor, to whom I 

 have referred, as distinctly marked as if the eyes in the portrait 

 had been painted for his eyes. It always appeared strange to 

 me that a feature so peculiarly and distinctly marked should 

 have slumbered, as it were, through so many generations, and 

 have cropped up now. There is the portrait of a lady painted 

 by Sir P, Lely, which, if the dress w^ere altered, Avould be 

 an excellent likene&s of the eldest daughter of one of the 

 brothers of the present proprietor ; and one of a gentleman of 

 the time of George II. resembles most markedly a son of a 

 sister of the same gentleman — here there are family likenesses 

 issuing both on the male and female side. I know a family, 

 the father of which had the lobe of each ear peculiarly formed, 

 it was quite flat, as if one had taken a ball of putty and 

 squeezed it flat between two boards ; he had a son and three 

 daughters, the eldest daughter alone had her father's ears. 

 The son married, had a daughter, his first-born, then a son ; 

 the son had exactly the ears of his grandfather. A very old 

 friend of mine, now no more, had at times a very peculiar 

 expression of the mouth, so singular that no one could fail to 

 observe it. He had a Hasan with a lady, and the result was 

 a son. The child was ill. I was asked by my friend to see it ; 

 while examining the child, I observed that he had at times 

 the exact expression of mouth to which I have referred in my 

 friend. I was not acquainted with the lady before, but she, 

 doubtless, knew of the friendship between the gentleman and 

 myself, and as he had had some misgiving of the lady's good 

 faith — in other words, he doubted his paternity — which she 



