Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-08-10

comparatively rare it is to meet with but one
distinguished person in family. Thus there
were two Pitts and two Foxes. The family of
-117chyIuS contained eight poets. There were
Two Scalgers, two HerSchels, two Coleridges
MonteSqnierS, two Snerdans Raphael. Par
migianO Titan, Vaniyke were sons of painters
Mozart and Beethoven inherited their talent
Extremes, however, are soitary-they are not
often transmitted
The moral tendencies follow the same analo
gy Children inherit the dru ken propensity.
me passions Of their parents, and not by force
ol example Of education merely, but By direct
constitutional heirship. Even the passion for
gaming has been transmitted The tendency
to violate the laws for the protection of life or
property is transIniSsable. Suicide runs i'm
families.
The offspring of young, immature parents are
WFetchea a"d unhealthy. Old age is also di-
rect heritage; the children of the aged are old
at their very birth. So, also, psychological
conditions are heritable. Insanity, condition
but lmPerfcctly defined in our common law
proneneSs to yield to peculiar forms of temntn.
ton; producing almost complete irresponsi6ii-
| ", may be transmitted through many genera
uons- Hence the existence of sttIanuerous
classes people set apart to ill our prisons at
war with their kind, the parfahs of humanity
whom philanthropy and legislation fail to pro.
vide tor properly. Such cannot be reformed
but mehsurably; generations must pass before
| the stock can be regencrated.
The question whether marriages between
| members of nearly allied families result in dr
| tcTioration OF the stock has not been settled
Certain 1t IS that the union of human tvncs
widely distinct will effect mongrcl offspring,
which nature hastcns to rid herself of as dis
grace. Examples sustaining every view OF this
subject may be literally quoted ,a.
The law that ''likc produces like" exists
everywhere, while, nevertheless, children. in
| nl lpt IN In lutv #
their parents and from each other Every
formation of body, internal or external, ev-
cry detOrmity or deficiency from disease or
accident every habit or aptitude is liable
t" be transmitted 10 offspring. Where, how
ever, the specific type has been modified,
the tendency is to return TO the origi-
nal toTm. Intellectual endowmcnts and anti
tudes are i'll like manner heritablc, even to the
accident of mental cultivation or neglect; as are
also moral qualities, with the important adGi.
ton that the simple practice OF the parent, be.
comes the passion, the mania, the all but ire
sI>iabtc impulse of the child. The law OF diver
silly, as before explained, affords opportunity
OF escape, that healthy children proceed from
unhealthy parents, etc. The offspring Of that
large portion of our population who are given
up TO intempcrancc and other forms of vice. in
herlt from their parents strong impulses and
| feeble wills SO as to become more or less irrcs
ponSl6lc, and bear peculiar relation to Tie Law
which urgently claims an attention ard nvusti-
cation which it has as yet very imperrectly re.
ccived
1t is not probably desirable, that matrimonial
alliances should DC formed, as some paySiolo,
gists would insist, with exclusive reference t,
the scientific principles herein involved; though
n due consideration Of them may bc Of advan.
tage. Human nature instiactivey repcIs arLi.
trary regulations in snch matters, and it is by
no means certai" that physiology, as now un-
dur$tOOd and taught Cu1ild StiIilv r,,lrS IN oyrri
the hereditary transmission of certain comstitn.
tional inlirnitics Nevertheless, the whole sub.
ject demands attention, intnilcly beyond what
it has thus far received