178 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
and toes, four children may have a mixed number, and two 
children may have the usual number of five on both hands 
and feet. In a Spanish family, each child except the 
youngest had the number six on both hands and feet; the 
youngest, only, had the usual number on both hands and feet, 
and the six-fingered father of the child refused to recognize 
the last one as his own. 
The power of inheritance, moreover, shows itself very 
strikingly in the formation and colour of the human skin 
and hair. It is well known how exactly the nature of the 
complexion in many families—for instance, a peculiar soft - 
or rough skin, a peculiar luxuriance of the hair, a peculiar 
colour and largeness of the eyes—is transmitted through 
many generations. In like manner, peculiar local growths 
or spots on the skin, the so-called moles, freckles, and other 
accumulations of pigment which appear in certain places, are 
frequently transmitted through several generations so 
exactly, that in the descendants they appear on the same 
spots on which they existed in the parents. The porcupine 
men of the Lambert family, who lived in London last cen- 
tury, are especially celebrated. Edward Lambert, born in 
1717, was remarkable for a most unusual and monstrous 
formation of the skin. His whole body was covered with a 
horny substance, about an inch thick, which rose in the 
form of numerous thorn-shaped and scale-like processes, 
more than an inch long. This monstrous formation of the 
outer skin, or epidermis, was transmitted by Lambert to his 
sons and grandsons, but not to his granddaughters. The 
transmission in this instance remained in the male line, as 
is often the case. In like manner, an excessive develop- 
ment of fat in certain parts of the body is often transmitted 
