166 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 
entirely neglected by naturalists in former days. And 
indeed what comparison in organic nature can be made 
so frequently and universally as the resemblance of 
the offspring to the parent? An anatomist, it is true, 
quaintly attempted to work out the proposition that the 
resemblance in the children is not dependent on heredity, 
but is the result of identical and similar influences, cus- 
toms, and habits, prevalent in families. But this para- 
doxical theory requires no special refutation. It is 
quite true that similar habits and similar external im- 
pulses elicit a certain similarity of demeanour and 
appearance ; but if the little son of the pompous mil- 
lionaire apes his father, it cannot be said that he has 
likewise mimicked his large or small nose, &c., or has 
acquired it by a similar call for adaptation. We have 
only cursorily alluded to this quibble, in flagrant contra- 
diction as it is with every experience; and, in conformity 
with general opinion, we corroborate the transmission of 
the parental characteristics to the offspring. The breeders 
of animals in particular has occasion to observe these 
transmissions specially, and to evolve their astounding 
progress from the combination and reciprocal influence 
of the various forms and degrees of heredity. 
It is well known that not only are normal conditions 
transmitted, but monstrosities are also reproduced through 
several generations, and, as we have seen in the instance 
of the crook-legged sheep of Massachusetts, may even be 
established as the characters of a race. A mere reference 
to the inheritability of morbid tendencies, bodily and 
mental, will enable us to realize this intrinsic connection 
of the offspring to the ancestors. Only since the theory 
of selection has rendered the modalities of the transmis: 
