Chap. XII. INHERITANCE. 7 



pleased, at the age of four and a half years, moved her fingers 

 in exactly the same way, and what is still odder, when much 

 excited, she raised both her hands, with her fingers still moving, 

 to the sides of her face, in exactly the same manner as her 

 father had done, and sometimes even still continued to do when 

 alone. I never heard of any one excepting this one man and his 

 little daughter who had this strange habit ; and certainly imita- 

 tion was in this instance out of the question. 



Some writers have doubted whether those complex mental 

 attributes, on which genius and talent depend, are inherited, 

 even when both parents are thus endowed. But he who will 

 read Mr. Galton's able paper u on hereditary talent will have his 

 doubts allayed. 



Unfortunately it matters not, as far as inheritance is con- 

 cerned, how injurious a quality or structure may be if compatible 

 with life. No one can read the many treatises 12 on hereditary 

 disease and doubt this. The ancients were strongly of this 

 opinion, or, as Kanchin expresses it, Omnes Grceci, Arabes, et 

 Latini in eo consentiunt. A long catalogue could be given 

 of all sorts of inherited malformations and of predisposition 

 to various diseases. With gout, fifty per cent, of the cases 

 observed in hospital practice are, according to Dr. Garrocl, 

 inherited, and a greater percentage in private practice. Every 

 one knows how often insanity runs in families, and some of 

 the cases given by Mr. Sedgwick are awful, — as of a surgeon, 

 whose brother, father, and four paternal uncles were all insane, 

 the latter dying by suicide ; of a Jew, whose father, mother, and 

 six brothers and sisters were all mad ; and in some other cases 

 several members of the same family, during three or four suc- 

 cessive generations, have committed suicide. Striking instances 



11 ' Macmillan's Magazine,' July and ' De l'Heredite dans les Maladies,' 1840. 

 August, 1865. Adams, « A Philosophical Treatise on 



12 The works which I have read and Hereditary Peculiarities,' 2nd edit., 

 found most useful are Dr. Prosper Lu- 1815. Essay on ' Hereditary Diseases,' 

 cas's great work, ' Traite de l'Heredite by Dr. J. Steinan, 1843. See Paget, in 

 Naturelle,' 1847. Mr. W. Sedgwick, in 'Medical Times,' 1857, p. 192, on the 

 1 British and Foreign Medico-Chirurg. Inheritance of Cancer ; Dr. Gould, in 

 Keview,' April and July, 1861, and 'Proc. of American Acad, of Sciences,' 

 April and July, 1863: Dr. Garrod on Nov. 8, 1853, gives a curious case of 

 Gout is quoted in these articles. Sir hereditary bleeding in four genera- 

 Henry Holland, 'Medical Notes and tions. Harlan, 'Medical Piescarches,' 

 Reflections,' 3rd edit., 1S55. Piorry, p. 593. 



