5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and physiological functions which constitute the species. At all 

 events, it is plain that in this case the parents are completely and 

 absolutely repeated in the children. Were this not so, there would 

 be no species, but only successions of beings without any relations 

 between them save that of generation. Within the historic limits 

 of experience, the continuous reproduction of specific characters, al- 

 ways identical, or, in other words, the permanent integrity of spe- 

 cies, is a fact almost beyond question. The distinctive characters of 

 races and of varieties are transmitted with less regularity and fixity, 

 and it is precisely on the various transformations that these may un- 

 dergo from one generation to another that a famous school of natural- 

 ists rest when they would prove, in a more or less extended sense, the 

 transformation of organisms in time. But more irregular still and 

 more variable is the repetition of those characters which, as being 

 less general than those of a species or a race, may be regarded as be- 

 longing to the individual. Thus, in proportion as the characters be- 

 come more particular and more special, the more are they released 

 from the law of heredity, and the greater is the probability that the 

 children will differ from the parents. Still, observation — an observa- 

 tion as ancient as the human race itself — shows that these characters, 

 though personal, may be transmitted by generation. But within what 

 limits, and under what conditions ? This we have to inquire into with 

 all circumspection, for there is no other subject in which one is so 

 much in danger of making missteps, and of slipping on dangerous in- 

 clines. 



Heredity is especially noticeable in the continuity of physiological 

 and pathological conditions. It is very clearly evident in the expres- 

 sion and features, of the physiognomy. This was observed by the an- 

 cients ; hence the Romans had their Nasones, Labeones, Buccones, 

 Capitones, etc. (Big-nosed, Thick-lipped, Swollen-cheeked, Big-headed). 

 Of all the features, probably the nose is best preserved by hered- 

 ity : the Bourbon nose is famous. Heredity also manifests itself 

 by fecundity and longevity. In the old French noblesse there 

 were several families which possessed high procreative vigor. Anne 

 de Montmorency, who, at the age of over sixty-five years, could still, 

 at the battle of St. Denis, smash with his sword the teeth of a Scotch 

 soldier who was giving him the death-blow, was the father of twelve 

 children. Three of his ancestors, Matthew I., Matthew II., and 

 Matthew III., taken all together, had eighteen, and of these fifteen were 

 boys. The son and grandson of the great Conde had nineteen between 

 them, and their great-grandfather, who lost his life at Jarnac, had ten. 

 The first four Guises reckoned in all forty-three children, of whom thirty 

 were boys. Achille de Harley had nine children, his father ten, and his 

 great-grandfather eighteen. In some families this fecundity endured 

 through five or six generations. The average length of life depends 

 on locality, diet, stage of civilization, but individual longevity appears 



