Dr. P. Lucas, who has collected many facts on this subject, shows[160]
that when a peculiarity, in no manner connected with the reproductive
organs, appears in either parent, it is often transmitted exclusively
to the offspring of the same sex, or to a much greater number of them
than of the opposite sex. Thus, in the family of Lambert, the horn-like
projections on the skin were transmitted from the father to his sons
and grandsons alone; so it has been with other cases of ichthyosis,
with supernumerary digits, with a deficiency of digits and phalanges,
and in a lesser degree with various diseases, especially with
colour-blindness, and a haemorrhagic diathesis, that is, an extreme
liability to profuse and uncontrollable bleeding from trifling wounds.
On the other hand, mothers have transmitted, during several
generations, to their daughters alone, supernumerary and deficient
digits, colour-blindness, and other peculiarities. So that we see that
the very same peculiarity may become attached to either sex, and be
long inherited by that sex alone; but the attachment in certain cases
is much more frequent to one than the other sex. The same peculiarities
also may be promiscuously transmitted to either sex. Dr. Lucas gives
other cases, showing that the male occasionally transmits his
peculiarities to his daughters alone, and the mother to her sons alone;
but even in this case we see that inheritance is to a certain extent,
though inversely, regulated by sex. Dr. Lucas, after weighing the whole
evidence, comes to the conclusion that every peculiarity, according to
the sex in which it first appears, tends to be transmitted in a greater
or lesser degree to that sex.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account