All observations concur in acknowledging that there are many circumstances in which children resemble their parents. It is very common to see them resemble one of their parents in countenance, and when there are several children, some shall bear the likeness of the father and others of the mother. Children often possess the make and fashion of the body, peculiar to one or other of their parents, together with their gait and voice; but that which has surprized me most is the resemblance of the hand-writing. If a parent had taught his son to write, it might be expected that a considerable similarity would be detected; but in general the fact appears to be otherwise, for it seldom happens that the scholars, though constantly imitating the copy of the master, write at all like him, or like each other. In a few instances I have noticed a correct resemblance between the hand-writing of the father and son, where the former died before the latter had been taught the use of the pen, and who probably never saw the hand-writing of his father. The transmission of personal deformities is equally curious. I am acquainted with a person in this town, whose middle and ring finger are united, and act as one; all the children of this man carry the same defect. A toenail, particularly twisted, has been traced through three generations, on the same foot and toe. Abundant instances might be adduced on this subject; there is scarcely a family which cannot produce something in confirmation; and if to these circumstances in the human species, were to be added the experiments which have been made on the breeding of cattle, perhaps little doubt would remain. The reasoners against the transmission of madness urge, that, if the contrary were true, we should by this time have detected the rule or law by which nature acts, and that we should have been able to determine,--First, whether the disorder descended to the male or female children accordingly as the father or mother was affected.--Secondly, which of the parents is most capable of transmitting the disease?--Thirdly, what alternations in the succession take place, does it shift from the male to the female line, and, does it miss a generation, and afterwards return? These, and a multitude of other queries, might be proposed; I believe much faster than they could be answered. Nature appears to delight in producing new varieties, perhaps less in man than in other animals, and still less in the animal than in the vegetable kingdom. Before these subtile reasoners expect, from those who maintain that madness generally descends from the parent to the offspring, a developement of the laws by which Nature acts, it would be convenient first to settle whether in this matter she be under the dominion of any law whatever.