THE PHENOMENA OF HEREDITY. 55 



THE PHENOMENA OF HEREDITY. 



By FEKNAND PAPILLON. 



TRANSLATED BY J. FITZGERALD, A. M. 



IN human science there is many a ground of self-satisfaction and of 

 pride for the mind, but there are at the same time reasons for 

 humility and bitter disappointment. Notwithstanding the strenuous 

 efforts and the protracted meditations of the legions of investigators 

 who have gone before us, Nature still has abysses dark and deep be- 

 fore which the keenest sight becomes blindness, courage changes into 

 fear, and assurance into despondency. When we strive to throw 

 some light into these mysterious gulfs, the light does but reveal to us 

 the spectres of our own ignorance, and all that we carry away from 

 th^ vain attempt is a renewed consciousness of our weakness and 

 indigence. It were wise for us to carry away something more, viz., 

 a useful lesson. Indeed, there is nothing that is better fitted to 

 teach us modesty and patience, to cool down presumptuous ardor, and 

 to put to shame overweening temerity, than the study of those phe- 

 nomena which Providence would seem to have devised for the express 

 purpose of baffling man's curiosity. And yet many there are who pre- 

 tend to ignore the wonderful and complex phenomena which occur in re- 

 gions inaccessible to sight or sense, and who stubbornly question the 

 existence of invisible activities and insensible forces. Such is the fatal 

 skepticism against which we must cite the testimony of the sphinxes 

 that occupy our attention now. The lesson is all the # more impressive, 

 inasmuch as, by strange contrast, these questions, so refractory to all 

 manner of theoretic explanation, are precisely the ones with which 

 our empirical acquaintance is fullest. Here a knowledge of effects 

 seems in no wise to pave the way to a knowledge of causes. 



These remarks have a special application to the subject of heredity. 

 It is an ascertained fact that the ovum contains in its seemingly homo- 

 geneous substance not only the anatomical structure of the individual 

 that is to spring from it, but also, his temperament, character, apti- 

 tudes, sentiments, and thoughts. The parents place in this molecule 

 the future of an existence which is nearly always the counterpart of 

 themselves physiologically, oftentimes pathologically, and in many 

 instances psychologically. Such are the results of the latest studies 

 into this amazing vital economy ; and these we purpose laying before 

 our readers. 



Heredity is that biological law in virtue of which living beings 

 tend to transmit to their descendants a certain number of their own 

 characteristic traits. It is a very nice question to decide whether we 

 must class under heredity the transmission of the anatomical forms 



