178 NATURAL INHERITANCE. [chap. 



the part of the mother to transmit consumption, as 

 shown in this Table, until I had selected the cases and 

 nearly finished sorting them. Out of the fourteen 

 families, the mother was described as actually dying 

 of consumption in six cases, of lung complaints in two 

 others, and of having highly consumptive tendencies 

 in another, making a total of nine cases out of the 

 fourteen. On the other hand the Fathers show hardly 

 any consumptive taints. One was described as of a 

 very consumptive fraternity, though he himself died of 

 an accident ; and another who was still alive had suffered 

 from an abscess of the liver that broke through the 

 lungs. Beyond these there is nothing to indicate 

 consumption on the Fathers' side. 



Another way of looking at the matter is to compare 

 the ages at death of the Mothers and of the Fathers 

 respectively, as has been done at the side of the Table, 

 when we see a notable difference between them, the 

 Mid-age of the Mothers being 58, as against 73 of 

 the Fathers, 



The only other group of diseases in my collection, 

 that affords a fair number of instances in which frater- 

 nities are greatly affected, are those of the Heart. 

 The instances are only nine in number, but I give an 

 analysis of them, not for any value of their own, but 

 in order to bring the peculiarities of the consumptive 

 fraternities more strongly into relief by means of com- 

 parison. In one of these there was no actual death 

 from heart disease, though three had weak hearts and 

 two others had rheumatic gout and fever. These nine 



