The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)Spencer, Herbert
Science
The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)
Spencer, Herbert
Biology
Of special instances there are many besides that of the often-cited
Otto-breed of sheep, descended from a single short-legged lamb, and that of
the six-fingered Gratio Kelleia, who transmitted his peculiarity, in
different degrees, to several of his children and to some of his
grandchildren. In a paper contributed to the _Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal_ for July, 1863, Dr. (now Sir John) Struthers gives cases of
hereditary digital variations. Esther P----, who had six fingers on one
hand, bequeathed this malformation along some lines of her descendants for
two, three, and four generations. A---- S---- inherited an extra digit on
each hand and each foot from his father; and C---- G----, who also had six
fingers and six toes, had an aunt and a grandmother similarly formed. A
collection of evidence published by Mr. Sedgwick in the _Medico-Chirurgical
Review_ for April and for July, 1863, in two articles on "The Influence of
Sex in limiting Hereditary Transmission," includes the following
cases:--Augustin Duforet, a pastry-cook of Douai, who had but two instead
of three phalanges to all his fingers and toes, inherited this malformation
from his grandfather and father, and had it in common with an uncle and
numerous cousins. An account has been given by Dr. Lepine, of a man with
only three fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot, and whose
grandfather and son exhibited the like anomaly. Béchet describes Victoire
Barré as a woman who, like her father and sister, had but one developed
finger on each hand and but two toes on each foot, and whose monstrosity
re-appeared in two daughters. And there is a case where the absence of two
distal phalanges on the hands was traced for two generations. The various
recorded instances in which there has been transmission from one generation
to another, of webbed-fingers, of webbed-toes, of hare-lip, of congenital
luxation of the thigh, of absent patellæ, of club-foot, &c., would occupy
more space than can here be spared. Defects in the organs of sense are also
not unfrequently inherited. Four sisters, their mother, and grandmother,
are described by Duval as similarly affected by cataract. Prosper Lucas
details an example of amaurosis affecting the females of a family for three
generations. Duval, Graffe, Dufon, and others testify to like cases coming
under their observation.[35] Deafness, too, is occasionally transmitted
from parent to child. There are deaf-mutes whose imperfections have been
derived from ancestors; and malformations of the external ears have also
been perpetuated in offspring. Of transmitted peculiarities of the skin and
its appendages, many cases have been noted. One is that of a family
remarkable for enormous black eyebrows; another that of a family in which
every member had a lock of hair of a lighter colour than the rest on the
top of the head; and there are also instances of congenital baldness being
hereditary. From one of our leading sculptors I learn that his wife has a
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