24 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



means of it a posthumous son of a late Baron de Ves- 

 sins was discovered in a London shoemaker's appren- 

 tice. Haller cites the case of a family where an exter- 

 nal tumor was transmitted from father to son which 

 always swelled when the atmosphere was moist. 



A remarkable example of a singular organic peculiar- 

 ity and of its transmission to descendants, is furnished 

 in the case of the English family of "Porcupine men," 

 so called from having all the body except the head and 

 face, and the soles and palms, covered with hard dark- 

 colored excrescences of a horny nature. The first of 

 these was Edward Lambert, born in Suffolk in 1H8, 

 and exhibited before the Royal Society when fourteen 

 years of age. The other children of his parents were 

 naturally formed ; and Edward, aside from this peculi- 

 arity, was good looking and enjoyed good health. He 

 afterward had six children, all of whom inherited the 

 same formation, as did also several grand-children. 



Numerous instances are on record tending to show 

 that even accidents do sometimes, although not usually, 

 become hereditary. Blumenbach mentions the case of 

 a man whose little finger was crushed and twisted by 

 an accident to his right hand. His sons inherited 

 right hands with the little finger distorted. A bitch 

 had her hinder parts paralyzed for some days by a blow. 

 Six of her seven pups were deformed, or so weak in 



