Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-08-26
VOL. XIII.
INHERITED CHARACTERIS-
TICS

tested in those analogies of structure, type, an
function which enables us to form groups 70
convenience of investigation and description
1.-The latter indicated in those differences whic
constitute the characteristics of the various sub
divisions into classes, orders, genera, and spe
, cies- With this final division the law of di
versity is suspended no new species springinG
from one already existing, although infinite va
| rie, lies of individuality may be produced.
/ UnJer the operation of these two origina
laws, writer in the British Quarterly, of who's,
facts we avail ourselves accounts for all tn,
! phenomena OF life. Children inherit the gener
al form and appearance of their parents, anC
also their rnenta,l and moral constitutions, no
only in their origin al and essential characters
but even in those acq,'i-ed habits of life, of in
tellect, of virtue or of We for which they have
been remarkable Under the law of diversity
We observe defor1nity and ug4 mess giving orl
gin to grace and beauty, health producing dis
ease, virtue succeeded by vice, intellect by I'M
beciity, and the converse of all these phenom-
ena. The actor of these two laws is 50 inter
blended that it is impossible to predict exactly
the qualities of child from the knowledge OF
those of the parent.
Much of the diversity incident to offspring is
attributable TO the innate tendency of species,
after artificial or accidental modification, to re-
turn to its original type, as in the case of mix
ed breeds often returning to one or the other
parent stock. Nature seems to have al abhor-
renee Of mongrel races, and will destroy them
| in same way.
| The opinion common among our learned men
may be expressed in the words of the physolo-
| gst Burdach, THAT heritage has in reality more
| power over our constitution and character than
all the influences from without, whether moral
or physical" There is something interesting
| in the manner in which some characteristic fea-
ture is handed down from one generation to
another, sometimes for centuries. Thus the
Bourbons have an aquiine nose and peculiar
form of the ear the imperial house of Austria
thick lip derived from Mary of Burgundy ;
and the two cosmopolitan races, the Hebrews
and the Gipseys, have distinctive physiogno-
my, little modified by any external circumstan-
ces under which they live. Bodily form and
| color activity and aptitude are heritable-
! Children born of talkatiye parents are them
selves loouacious. There exists hereditary liza
| bilitv to certain forms of disease, apoplexy
| epilepsy mental alteration, hemorrhages, spe-
cial inflammation, sc. Fecundity and longe-
! vity are t.ainsmissibie, as indeed are idiosyn-
crasies. In entire families the slightest guam
] tity of opium acts as a virulent poison; we
once witnessed in d family sensitive to mercury
a child with swollen joints and unmistakable
evidence of mereurial poisoning, resulting i'll
death, where the drug had been administered by
a homoeopathist Louis XIV and his descend
ants possessed voraeious appetites, aed Both
| ius tells of a young gill With horrible pro
pensity to cannibalism, whose parents during
her infancy had been burnt for eating human
! flesh.
The differeut races of men have characters
tics distinctly marked the red, the Black; the
yellow man. all comport themselves in differ
ent and strikingly contrasted manner when
brought into contact with the white man and
his civilization. Neither will these differences
disappear by custom the sombre red man and
| volatile negro are alike incapable of assima-
ton to the European nature. Even the Celtic,
! Teutonic and Scl;lvic varieties are unable to
blend together. Races consist of aggregations
oi individuals it IS clear, therefore, that to 4
certain extent individuals have the power oil
transmitting their own specific psycilal nature,
The education of the parent Influences the
capacity Of the offspring. Even among ami
mails the progeny readily assume the habits OF
the parents, with little Or no training TO them
even when those habits were first superinduced
by training. 4 ST. Bernard dog, native OF
London, began to track footsteps i'll the snow.
The pointer descended from a trained stock
sill take to pointing without instruction. In
the human family the same principle holds
E I,,fl-r
naturally adept forest habits to an extent and
, with skill altogether foreign to white child
. although both have been brought up from ear
liest infancy in the saIi1e manner. At then
first associations with civilized people, savageS
and their children show an untamable and un
. teachable spirit but after one or two genera
tos, during wl1icl, efforts at Instruction have
been partially successful, the yodng children
indicate mere docility, and much greater aptl
tude to learn DIR. More observes that our ed
D ucation may he said to begin with our fore
f fathers The child of the morally instructed i
most capable of instruction, and intellectual
h excellence is generally the result of ages o
. mental cultivation. Sir a Carlisle cites tn
: observation of schoolmaster that the capaci
ties of children for learning affected by tn
= education and aptitude of their parents; ant
o. that the children of people accustomed to al
. ithmetic learned figures quicker than those q
differently educated persons willie the chil
dren of classical scholars more easily learne
Latin and Greek, and that, notwithstanding
= few striking exceptions, the natural duness o
3 children born Of uneducated persons was pre-
y verbal. Burdach agrees that the develope
: ment of the intellectual faculties of the parent
= renders the children more capable of receivin
u education and Girou says that acquired cs
pacities are transmitted by generation, an
IL !, thus Transmission is more certain and perfec
W in proportion as the cultivation has extende
over more generations, and as that of one pa
= ent is less opposed by that of the other. Chi
: ~ dren receive from their parents with the in
press of their habits all the shades of capacit
n :, aptitude, and taste which have been the fru
III of such habits There are exceptions; wi
men have often fools for their children, and ia
III ents often arise from family remarkable on
" for mediocrity but the tendency, indicating
II law, is to the transmission of similar quallti
'ii to offspring No man of talent ever had ;
~ idiot or imbecil for his father or mother. Ii
cI ~, becity is transmitted from generation to ge
y" " Grafton. It is also matter of daily obsery
''0 ton that the ordinary run of children have
bout the same intellectual capacities as tn
parents. As we ascend the scale we cam
fail to perceive how comparatively rare it is
or meet with but one distinguished person in
Ige family. Thus there were two Pitts and t
60 Foxes The family of Eschylus contain
pi- eight poets. There were two Scaligers, t
tie Herchels, two Coeridges, two Montesqui
we two Sheridans Raphfel, Parmigiano. Tit
n and Handyke were sons of painters; Moza
md and Beeth1ven inherited their talent. F
m trenes however, are solitary they not of
n+s transmitted.