402 



Dr. E. A. Parkes on the Effect of 



[June 13, 



Lastly, it is often remarked (1) that the immediate offspring of differ- 

 ent races or even varieties resemble their parents equally, but (2) that 

 great diversities appear in the next and in succeeding generations. In 

 which stage does the variability occur ? It cannot be in the first (class 

 representation) nor in the second (development), else (1) could not have 

 been true ; therefore it must be in the third stage. A white parent neces- 

 sarily contributes white elements to the structureless stage of his offspring, 

 and a black, black ; but it does not in the least follow that the contributions 

 from a true mulatto must be truly mulatto. 



One result of this investigation is to show very clearly that large varia- 

 tion in individuals from their parents is not incompatible with the strict 

 doctrine of heredity, but is a consequence of it wherever the breed is im- 

 pure. I am desirous of applying these considerations to the intellectual 

 and moral gifts of the human race, which is more mongrelized than that 

 of any other domesticated animal. It has been thought by some that 

 the fact of children frequently showing marked individual variation in 

 ability from that of their parents is a proof that intellectual and moral 

 gifts are not strictly transmitted by inheritance. My arguments lead to 

 exactly the opposite result. I show that their great individual variation 

 is a necessity under present conditions ; and I maintain that results de- 

 rived from large averages are all that can be required, and all we could 

 expect to obtain, to prove that intellectual and moral gifts are as strictly 

 matters of inheritance as any purely physical qualities. 



III. " Further Experiments on the Effect of Alcohol and Exercise on 

 the Elimination of Nitrogen and on the Pulse and Temperature 

 of the Body By E. A. Parkes, M.D., F.R.S. Received 

 Apiiil 25, 1872. 



In the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society 5 (xviii. p. 362, xix. p. 73) are 

 some observations by the late Count Wollowicz and myself on the effect of 

 alcohol, brandy, and claret on the elimination of nitrogen. As the expe- 

 riments were on one man, I have taken an opportunity of repeating 

 them on another person ; and as the late observations of Dr. Austin 

 Flint (junior) on a man who walked 317 miles in five days have ap- 

 peared to some persons to run counter to the now generally accepted view 

 that exercise produces either no change or only insignificant changes in 

 the urea, I have combined experiments on exercise with those on alcohol. 

 With respect, however, to Dr. Austin Flint's experiments, it would appear 

 that while the egress of nitrogen was determined with the greatest ac- 

 curacy, the amount taken in was for the most part merely estimated by 

 reference to Payen's Tables, and therefore there is no certainty that the 

 ingress was what it is assumed to have been. The food also was very 



