454 PROF. B. C. A. WINDLE ON TERATOLOGICAL EVIDENCE 



Lebensjaliren ausser Stande geweseu sein wiirde, jene Potenz 

 aufzudecken." 



In tlie same way the child- giant brings into the world with 

 him the potentialities of his stature and size. On the other 

 hand, it may be urged that post-natal nourishment may be the 

 factor; and Bishop Berkeley's giant* may be cited in confir- 

 mation. To this it may be replied, that post-natal nourishment 

 can affect the height only within very narrow limits ; for other- 

 wise there would be none but dwarfs in those parts of Ireland, 

 for example, where potatoes and seaweed are the staple foods, 

 and none but giants amongst the classes whose circumstances 

 have been easy for generations past. And, as far as M'G-rath 

 is concerned, the instance is an isolated one; and there is no 

 evidence to prove what the unfortunate man's stature might have 

 been had he not been subjected to the episcopal tender mercies. 

 On the whole, then, I think it may be said that giantism is an 

 occasionally hereditary condition, blastogenic in its nature. 



Homologous Twins. — It is an unfortunate circumstance that 

 the confusion which has existed with regard to true or homolo- 

 gous twins and the other form, vitiates all the statistics as to 

 twins, so far as I have examined them. True twins, which 

 are always of the same sex, enclosed in the same membranes, 

 generally strikingly like one another, and the product of one 

 ovum, are of course totally different from twins the product of 

 two ova, enclosed in separate membranes, not necessarily of the 

 same sex, nor more alike than children of the same family are, or 

 may be. This fact has, however, not been taken into account 

 by those who are responsible for the statistics of twins ; and it 

 is consequently impossible to say whether the facts observed 

 relate to both classes or only to one. Subject to this reservation, 

 it may be said that the bearing of twins is certainly hereditary — 

 " runs in a family," as the phrase has it. This is also true of 

 multiple births beyond the number of two. Thus Osiander t 

 gives a case where a woman, herself a twin, was the mother of 38 

 children, and died in childbed after delivery of twins. One of 

 her daughters, who was born with three others at a birth, had 

 32 children at 11 confinements. The following statistics given 



* ' Philosophical Survey of Ireland,' Loudon, 1777, p. 187. 

 •|- ' Handb. d. Entbindungskunst,' 1 Th. 1 Abth. S. 319. Quoted in Edinb. 

 Med. Journ. vol. iii. p. 1143. 



