Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-09-23
No. 226
HKRKDrrARx TRANSMISSION.
Discourse on q Living Subject by n
Man with q Green Patch.
rrrom the New York Sunl


Man with q Green Patch.
Irrom the New York SUM-
The hereditary transmission of physical
and mental traits and tendencies, from
generation to generation, in men and ami
mails and insects, and everything that lives,
is queer, amt itf' said man with green
patch over one eye, as he dangled his feet
from North river dock and watched the 9
erratic fight of dragon fly hunting in
sects here and there and up and down over
the water. A short man, chewing q ci-
gar butt, whose extinct crater emitted
tremendous odor, leaned against an sd
jacent pile. He stroked his chin refec-
lively for a moment, and then, in tones
startlingly mild for man who had braved
30 fierce a cigar, said:
SIS it, How long has it been going onF'
"Always," replied the man with the
when all the men who think and delve and
run for Office to-day; all the fish that swim
and beasts that walk and birds that iy;
and all the insects that fit in the sun
beam and wiggle in the mud-puddle, and
gyrate and gymnasticate wherever they
goll hang please, were but protoplastic
atoms in chaotic world, cons and cons
ago."
"Go 'wayI" exclaimed the short man,
81 want to knowl"
Certainly" said the man with the
green patch. That dragon ay put me in
mind of IL. And every time see chick
en- am reminded of il. Sixty years ago,
on my grandfather's farm, at four O'Clock
in the afternoon of July 10 a strange dog
ran in among a flock of chickens, causing
them to cackle and hutter and iy in all di-
rections in a state of the utmost alarm IL
was only q trifiing thing, and was forgot
ten almost as quickly as il had occurred
AT exactly four O'Clock on the afternoon of
July 10 the next year, however, the chick
ems began to cackle and autter and fy in
all directions in the same high state of
alarm that had marked them when the
strange dog had 10 suddenly agitated
them inst one year before TO q minute.
This time there was no dog. The singular
part of this case is that every year since
then promptly at four O'Clock p. m Of
July 10 the chickens on my grandfather's
farm are thrown into the same state of in
tense alarm that the dog threw them in
sixty years ago-a most striking case of
hereditary transmission of both mental
and physical tendency in the race of
| fowls.n
"And are they the same chickens that
the dog scaredr asked the short man.
s'0h, certainly said the man with the
green patch, gritting his teeth. "And my
| grandfather, who was only ninety years
1 old at the time the dog scared the chick
ems, still shells the corn and feeds them,
| while the dog Is cheerfully running a
| churning machine on a neighboTing farm I"
"My, myi" exclaimed the short man.
"And do dragon flies do it, tooF'
'Do whstF snapped the man with the
patch.
'Get scared by dogs and iy up and
cackle, and do it over again at four D. m.
on the nineteenth day of every Julyg"
The man with the green patch looked
| out mournfully across the water He
hummed plaintive air and then spoke up
/ wearily:
sIn my native town there is a peculiar
race of dragon flies. Once, some years
ago, o common, ordinary dragon fiy few
through a window in my native town into
Q room where foolish peasant struck at it
with towel, and knocked off portion Of
one of its wings, disabling it. A friend
of mine who was something of genius
was present, and he took up the injured
insect and deftly repaired the damaged
| wing with tissue paper and mucilage- he
tossed the fly out of the window and II
took wing. 1t rose in the air, but few
round and round in a big circle. II
couldn't go straight ahead. Ny friend,
the genius, had made the one wing heavier
than the other in mending it, and that, OF
course, made 1t impossible for the insect
to fy otherwise than in a circle, no matter
If it flew continually for thousand years.
While my friend was preparing to get a
long g-handed scoop net to capture the in
sect so he could remedy his imperfect Job
on the wing, another big dragon fiy few
through the same window and the same
foolish person who had hit the first fiy
knocked the second down The injury
done this one was more serious, for the
whole of the fly was severed close to the
insects shoulders. The poor fiy crawled
about in a piteously helpless state. Ny
friend turned his attention to this second
case, and in a mechanical way stuck one
end of wooden toothpick in the place
the body had been knocked from. That
toothpick happened to be just the proper
weight and balance, and up the dragon fiy
rose and scared out of the window with
his wooden body gracefully and easily
rs he had ever scared before, the dragon fiy
with the mended wing still describing aim
less circles in the air. The dragon fiy
with the wooden body saw the other one,
and hung poised over it, as If trying 70
make out what its queer antics meant. Ii
didn't take him long TO get il through him,
for he few over and got directly in front
of the other one as it came around in on,
of its circles, with the end of his woodel
body turned toward it. The hy of une
. venly balanced wing came along. Il
. grabbed the tip of the toothpick in it
, mouth Away went the insect with tn
: wooden body, towing the other one with
straight for its home.
: s'0f course that made good deal o
talk in my native place. but it was sool
forgotten. But next year, when dragoo
flies appeared, folks noticed that ther
! were two new kinds. One of these ha
one wing heavier than the other, and the
few around all day in circles. The oths
, kind had q long, slender, pointed body
People were surprised; but when, alon
toward evening, they saw the dragon file
, with the long, slender bodies back up Il
front of the ones that few all day in
circle, and tow them away home, al
! drawing It mild when say that they wer
i astounded. Was there ever clearer cas-
of hereditary transmission than thatF'
"My goodness me, no.n exclaimed th
short man. Then after a pause he said
= "Would you as lief tell me where You
: native place iss''
Certainly" said the man with th
{ patch.
"Thanksl Where is itg"