720 
HEREDITARY INFLUENCE. 
confess that we should hesitate before pronouncing against 
marriage, even when one of the lovers had already exhibited 
unequivocal signs of insanity or consumption. Nor is this 
said from any love of paradox ; it is quite serious, as the 
reader will admit, when he considers that the probability 
of transmission to children is very uncertain , and is entirely 
dependent on the other parent. A man with tubercles 
already formed may marry one woman who shall bear him 
children all perfectly healthy ; whereas another woman would 
bear him children all inevitably doomed. It is entirely a 
question of organic combination ; one parent’s influence 
being neutralised or fostered by the influence of another. 
The same is true, if we take the case of a woman with 
tubercle marrying a healthy man, 
Although everything depends on the constitution of the 
untainted parent, there is a further difficulty with human 
beings not felt with animals ; we allude to affection, which 
does not spring up when bidden. You may pair your dogs 
and cattle according to theory ; human beings must pair 
according to far other impulses. Nevertheless, the parent 
or physician who has to adjudicate in these delicate cases, 
may gain some guidance from general principles. We have 
seen that the predominance of one parent mainly consists 
in a superior potency which is derived from race, age, health, 
&c. Thus a young man, in whom the hereditary taint is 
visible, might fall in love with a woman some few years his 
senior, who, to superiority of age, might add that of be- 
longing to a more vigorous race. There would be scarcely 
any danger in such a marriage. But reverse the conditions 
— let the woman be younger and of a less vigorous race, 
and marriage would present such probabilities of danger that 
every means of prevention should be employed. At the best 
our judgment can be given with great hesitation, for the 
laws of organic combination, on which parental influence 
depends, are as yet wholly unknown. — Westminster Review . 
(To be continued .) 
