( 759 ) 
i8'/g.) 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
HEREDITY. 
7 'o the Editor of the Monthly Journal of Science. 
Sir, — Your article on “ The Criminal Law of the Future” is 
very interesting, and doubtless true ; although if Oliver Cromwell 
had known of it he would probably have said that he had been a 
fool to stop short with only massacreing the inhabitants of 
Drogheda, in Ireland, and that Irish proclivities to murder and 
rebellion “ proves only the more convincingly the necessity for 
their elimination ” (p. 594). Furthermore, it would warrant the 
extermination of Zulus and other tribes. 
But the question which struck me was, how is it that the prin- 
ciple of Heredity does not apply to genius ? The learned Count 
de Maistre remarked of France — “ A considerable portion of the 
literary glory of the French, particularly in the great century, 
belongs to the clergy. Science being generally contrary to the 
propagation of families and of names. Hence arises the ancient 
prejudice as to the incompatibility of science with nobility — a 
prejudice founded, like all prejudices, on some hidden cause. 
No learned man of the first class has been able to found a house. 
Already even the names of the sixteenth century that were cele- 
brated in literature and science no longer exist.” — I am, &c., 
Willis Nevins. 
Cheltenham. 
SEA-SERPENTS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Journal of Science. 
Sir, — Several alleged appearances of large sea-serpents have 
been lately recorded, but unfortunately they leave the question 
of the existence of such creatures precisely where it was. The 
being which struck and sunk the Norwegian barque Columbia , on 
September 4th, is described as “ a fish or some other sea- 
monster,” and may probably have been a large whale. The 
