in the decisive moment, the mother be suddenly seized by some predominant fear; and that it is less communicable when the fear is less hasty and more reflective. Thus we find those mothers, who, during the whole time of their pregnancy, are most in dread of producing monstrous or marked children, because they remember to have seen objects that excited abhorrence, generally have the best formed and freest from marks; for the fear, though real, was the fear of reason, and not the sudden effect of an object exciting abhorrence rising instantaneously to sight.

When both parents have given a deep root to the choleric temperament in a family, it may probably be some centuries before it be again moderated. Phlegm is not so easily inherited, even though both father and mother should be phlegmatic; for there are certain moments of life when the phlegmatic acts with its whole power, though it acts thus but rarely, and these moments may and must have their effects; but nothing appears more easy of inheritance than activity and industry, when these have their origin in organization, and the necessity of producing alteration. It will be long before an industrious couple, to whom not only a livelihood, but business, is in itself necessary, shall not have a single descendant with the like qualities, as such mothers are generally prolific.

CHAP. XXIV.

Remarks on the Opinions of Buffon, Haller, and Bonnet, concerning the Resemblance between Parents and Children.

THE theory or hypothesis of Buffon, concerning the cause of the human form, is well known, which Haller has abridged and more clearly explained in the following manner:

"Both sexes have their semen, in which are active particles of a certain form. From the union of these the fruit of the womb arises, These particles contain the resemblance of all the parts of the father or mother. They are by nature separated from the rude and unformed particles of the human juices, and are impressed with the form of all the parts of the body of the father or mother. Hence arises the resemblance of children to their parents. This will account for the mixture of the features of father and mother in the children; for the spots of animals, when the male and female are of different colours; for the Mulatto produced by a Negro and a White, and for many other phenomena, difficult to be resolved.

"Should it be asked, how these particles can assume the internal structure of the body of the father, since they can properly be only the. images of the hollow vessels, it may be an

swered that we know not all the powers of nature, and that she may have preserved to herself, though she has concealed it from her scholar, man, the art of making internally models and impressions which shall express the whole solidity of the model."

Haller, in his preface to Buffon's Natural History, has, in my opinion, indisputably confuted this system. But he has not only forborne to elucidate the resemblance between fathers and children, but, while opposing Buffon, he has spoken so much on the natural, physiological dissimilarity of the human body, that he appears to have denied this resemblance. Buffon's hypothesis offended all philosophy; and though we cannot entirely approve the theory of Bonnet, yet he has very effectually opposed the incongruities of Buffon, to which Buffon himself could scarcely give any serious faith. But he, as we shall soon see, has either avoided the question of resemblance between parents and children, or, in order to strengthen his own system, has rather sought to palliate than to answer difficulties.

BONNET, concerning organized Bodies.

"Are the germs of one and the same species of organized bodies perfectly like each other, or individually distinct? Are they only distinct in the organs which characterise sex, or have they a resembling difference to each other, such as

we observe in individual substances of the same species of plants or animals?"

Answer." If we consider the infinite variety to be observed in all the products of nature, the latter will appear most probable. The differences which are to be observed in the individuals of the same species probably depend more on the primitive form of the germs, than in the connexion of the sexes."

On the Resemblance between Children and their Parents.

"I must own, that, by the foregoing hypothesis, I have not been successful in explaining the resemblance of features found between parents and children. But are not these features very ambiguous? Do we not suppose that to be the cause, which probably is not so? The father is deformed, the son is deformed after the same manner, and it is therefore concluded that deformity is inherited. This may be true, but it may be false. The deformity of each may arise from very different causes, and these causes may be infinitely varied.

"It is not so difficult to explain hereditary diseases. We can easily conceive, that defective juices may produce defective germs; and, when the same parts of the body are affected by disease in father or mother, and in child, this arises from the similar conformation of the parts, by which they are subject to like incon

veniences. Besides, the mis-shapen body often originates in diseases being hereditary, which much diminishes the first difficulty. For, since the juices conducted to those parts are of a bad quality, the parts must be more or less ill formed, according as they are more or less capable of being affected by these juices."

REFLECTION.

Bonnet cannot find the origin of family likeness in his system. Let us, however, take this his system in the part where he finds the origin of hereditary disease. Shall the defective juices of father or mother very much alter the germ, and produce, in the very parts where the father or mother is injured, important changes of bad formation, more or less, according to the capability of the germ, and its power of resistance? And shall the healthy juices of the parent in no manner affect the germ? Why should not the healthy juices be as active as the unhealthy? Why should they not introduce the same qualities, in miniature, which the father and mother have in the gross, since the father and mother assimilate the nutriment they receive to their own nature, and since the seminal juices are the spiritual extract of all their juices and powers, as we have just reason to conclude from the most continued and accurate observations? Why should they not as naturally, and as powerfully, act upon the germ, to produce all possible