The Wilmingtonian., 1886-08-07
HEALTH HINTS.
Continued from JHly 24h issue.
Heredity In Health and Disease,


While noting these two ,treams of ten
deney in human breedng-the one marking
lines OF lleredity whereby the person is more
or less Ike his parents, the other marking
lines OF variation whereby he is more or less
unlike them-it is important to note that
manifest differences often hide dormant
deep lying sameness, which is vaguely felt
when it cannot be actually defined. The law
of hercdity is in latent, albeit not in patent
action. Let the uni kcuesS between two
brothers be so great that they look more like
strangers than brothers, aud the likeness be-
tween two strangers So close that they look
like brothers, we nevertheless feel instinc-
lively, when We come TO speak or deal closely
with them, the essential identity hich there
is beneath differences in the brothers. and
the essential d ference which there is be
meath likeness in the strangers. 1t is com
mon observation that particular quality of
the parent shall Ge ubleE in the child, but
shal! sh Nv itself IN very exact way in the
grandchid ;or, again, that the quality of an
uncle, or of much mo.e distant relative
shall come out in a most striking way in the
child " hose parcnts sh wed no trace of it..
This latency or dormaucy u ancestral quail
ties that afterwards Ike again to open ac-
tivity-whch is knIwn aS AiaciSm lis proof
that the effect Of the unton Of two persons
may be to hold special qualities Of each other
in IA sort of naturalization or check released
from hich they show themselves again Just
as an element in chemical compound ex-
hhits its own properties aga n as som as it
is free. Hence it is that eve. ybDdy may
learn more Of the deep t0uadat ous OF his
character of what he is essentially aud is
capable Of becOming--by the study of his re-
lations than he Will by the III Sr scyupUlnusly
minute selt-inspe 'tion for lie NAV observe
IN one on another ri them the fan develop
ment Of what lies dormant III him, hidden
and indlscernible-thc actual outcome of the
deep-lying potentia.tiCs Of the fam ly stock
That is the way to get p"cg'mn' hints to a
true self-knowledge, n knowledge of the ap-
titudes which may help ard Of the tcndeu-
cies that may betlay On tie occasion ofcrit-
ical strain in lite. These hidden qual ties.
although they sometimes remain dormant
through life may be stirred into open dovel-
opment by various causes, ( + example, by
the shocks Of the constitutional chang s
which take place mutually at particular
epOchs of life; by the intimate bodily
changes that are induced by the disturbing
effects of such abaulma events as levers ol
other Illnesses by tie outer stimuli of par.
ticular circumstances of life. Thus it is a
familiar observation that person who's,
likeness to his mother is more apparent al
one period of lie be,om IS more like hi,
father at another period, or that Il paterna1
quality which had ever been noticed in +.
daughter at all j, plainly cv vdcnt in Irraftr,
the climacteric change; or that The stimuli,
of greater cri,'s in persons life bring,
out ancestral q lalities of which up to iha
time he wa> thought destitute.
II any one would know whether he Is like
ly to live long or to die soon, let hun iuquir
whether old age run in ms family or not, ro
the good tissues ui loag life are apt to b
hereditary, and he may commit i great man,
excesseS OF other errms without killing him