Numerous analogous facts could be given. The silk-moth, perhaps, offers the
best instance; for in the breeds which transmit their characters truly, the
eggs differ in size, colour, and shape: the caterpillars differ, in moulting
three or four times, in colour, even in having a dark-coloured mark like an
eyebrow, and in the loss of certain instincts;--the cocoons differ in size,
shape, and in the colour and quality of the silk; these several differences
being followed by slight or barely distinguishable differences in the mature
moth.
But it may be said that, if in the above cases a new peculiarity is inherited,
it must be at the corresponding stage of development; for an egg or seed can
resemble only an egg or seed, and the horn in a full-grown ox can resemble
only a horn. The following cases show inheritance at corresponding periods
more plainly, because they refer to peculiarities which might have supervened,
as far as we can see, earlier or later in life, yet are inherited at the same
period at which they first appeared.
[In the Lambert family the porcupine-like excrescences appeared in the father
and sons at the same age, namely, about nine weeks after birth. (14/30.
Prichard 'Phys. Hist. of Mankind' 1851 volume 1 page 349.) In the
extraordinary hairy family described by Mr. Crawfurd (14/31. 'Embassy to the
Court of Ava' volume 1 page 320. The third generation is described by Capt.
Yule in his 'Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava' 1855 page 94.),
children were produced during three generations with hairy ears; in the father
the hair began to grow over his body at six years old; in his daughter
somewhat earlier, namely, at one year; and in both generations the milk teeth
appeared late in life, the permanent teeth being afterwards singularly
deficient. Greyness of hair at an unusually early age has been transmitted in
some families. These cases border on diseases inherited at corresponding
periods of life, to which I shall immediately refer.
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