father, Deacon Beecher, of New Haven, Connecticut, was similarly affected, and so are nearly every one of his children, and some of his nephews and nieces.

The author has suffered twenty years a similar affection. His aunt was unable, for years, to eat anything but rye pudding and milk, but by this means effected a cure. Others of the family are troubled in like manner. Nor does this doctrine require to be established by isolated examples, it being commonly and easily observable.

But one general range of facts, little suspected to establish this conclusion, deserves remark, not merely as a sweeping proof of this doctrine, but as a precautionary warning to all whom it may concern. The children of dyspeptic parents will generally be found to suffer severely from bowel complaints. I need not particularize. Produce a dyspeptic parent, and his children will be found to have feeble digestive powers, to be often disordered in their bowels, and with difficulty brought through their second summer. Some of them, too, will probably be found to have gone into premature graves in July or August. Reader, put these two things together-the fact that more than half the parents in this country are more or less dyspepticcaused by eating enormously and very fast, as proved in the author's work on "Physiology" 99 70 71 78 79 176,—and that half our children die under five years of age mostly of summer complaints. Behold the frightful mortality of children in August! The legitimate consequence of originally feeble digestive powAnd these weak by parental inheritance! The children of robust parents do not die thus; but those of delicate, white-livered, thin-faced, small-abdomen, sedentary parentage fall in summer like grass before the mower-the death scythe which cuts them down bring inherited stomach and liver complaints!

ers.

Heart affections have been associated with dyspeptic difficulties because their inter-relation is very intimate-the stomatic often causing the hepatic P 170. Imperfect digestion often leaves the blood too stagnant and thick to pass freely through the heart, and hence its palpitation. Dyspepsia being transmitted, we rightly infer that therefore heart difficulties are equally so.

CALVIN AND ALEXANDER EDSON.

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Nor is this inference, conclusive as it is, our main proof. Open the book of descent by the key of observation, and the result will be perfectly apparent that most who have hepatic affections have had ancestors, or relatives, or both, similarly affected. True, this disease, in common with all others, may be induced by wrong dietetic and other habits in those free from it by nature, yet the same aggravating causes will render those predisposed to it both much sooner and more grievously afflicted with it.

CALVIN AND ALEXANDER EDSON.

Calvin Edson of Randolph, Vt., died a few years ago a mere skeleton, weighing only forty-five pounds. His extreme emaciation rendered him so great a curiosity that he was exhibited as a show. He ate voraciously, and dissection disclosed the

cause-an enormous TAPEWORM.

His brother Alexander, college educated, and formerly a practicing physician, has been gradually losing his health and Hesh for some years, and now weighs only fifty pounds, though above forty years old. "The Woodstock Herald" says of him:-"In his tight dress, he more resembles a skeleton in clothes than a living being." Undoubtedly consumed like his brother by a tapeworm bred by a disordered stomach inherited from parentage. He has recently died.

More adults have both worms and tape-worms preying upon their nutrition than is supposed; and adults by thousands are supposed to die of any and every disease but the true one— WORMS-engendered by a foul stomach, and this feeble by inheritance. Worms are always bred by stomatic corruption, and the parents of those children who are much troubled or die with them, will generally be found to have impaired digestion, and to have been similarly troubled in youth, and if the facts could be ascertained, most of them are doubtless now feeding internal worms along with themselves. RECTIFY THE STOMACH, and this will eject worms and prevent their recurrence. But of this point in "Physiology, Animal and Mental" 169 170

332. RESISTANCE AND SUBJECTION TO HEAT AND COLD.

343

Whole families, as far as they can be traced, will often be found, most or all of whose branches are easily overcome with the cold, shivering and pinched up by even the slightest degree of cold, and thriving, like plants, only in the warm weather. The great-grandmother of the insane subject mentioned in was from Jamaica, and could hardly endure our winters. When old, after having loaded herself with flannel garments, she would wrap quilts around her body and feet, and then shiver, in summer, with cold. Her daughter was similarly though less affected by cold, and her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren like warm weather, but endure cold with great difficulty, and are unusually partial to the fire. Similar cases are common. A correspondent communicated the following for the American Phrenological Journal :—

"John Clark, a native of Connecticut, and who was born more than a century ago, was peculiarly affected by changeable or cold weather; his hands became benumbed and almost useless; his tongue stiffened so that it was with great difficulty he could give utterance to his ideas; the muscles of his face contracted and stiffened; and one or both eyes closed in a very peculiar manner. This took place in the cool mornings of every month in the year. How it was with his ancestors I am not certain, but believe it to have been the same with many of them. But about one-half of his children inherited the above afflictive peculiarity in a remarkable degree, and also many of their children, and so on till the fourth generation-of which they suffer in a more permanent degree than their parent-while the other part of his family have inherited the physical and mental qualities of their mother, who was a Miss Elizabeth Rogers, and supposed to be a descendant of the martyr Rogers, and who, with their descendants, are exempt from this infirmity." L. H. B.

So there are opposite cases of whole familes who can ENDURE cold. Of this all can witness examples who will take the trouble to inquire them out. It should be added, that capacity to endure cold depends on a vigorous circulation and powerful vital apparatus, on which longevity also depends 319, and that inability to endure cold is the consequence of feeble or imperfect circulation, and this indicates less longevity. Many other

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transmitted qualities are similarly inter-related to each other, to mention which would impair the consecutive unity of our subject.

The converse of both these principles holds equally true. Some families and their branches can endure heat remarkably. Others are easily overcome by it. Of this class, the following from the Cincinnati Commercial must suffice. "One of the Misses McCue, on Tuesday, went to market, and on returning, died of the excessive heat. On the Friday following, the second sister died in the same manner, after returning from the funeral. On Saturday, the third sister died in the carriage while attending the funeral of the second sister; and their mother was taken sick in the carriage and returned home. The three sisters were in apparent health up to the time of their death."

333. SUDDEN DEATH HEREDITARY.

Instances of sudden death occur in some families. Some eight or ten members of a family named Livermore, who reside in New Hampshire, have died suddenly, though apparently well, of heart affections 331. These belonged to some

four successive generations.

Joseph Eaton died suddenly in Framingham, Mass., and his brother and sister died almost instantaneously-one while singing in church, and the other while preparing to visit her friends.

DR. MILNOR, rector of Beekman-street church, New York, died suddenly when in excellent health, as did also his father and brother. Similar occurrences are common.

334. CUTANENOUS AFFECTIONS.

The undue redness or slight eruption on the face of the author is hereditary, though slight in his father, and a paternal uncle and aunt, as well as in some others. It occurs in his relations in Canada 315, though we parted four generations back. Jonathan Fowler, the giant 315, had a peculiar though harmless swelling of the veins of the leg. His greatgrandson William, and his son William, of Bradford, Ver

mont, had a kindred swelling. So has the author and his father. So have other descendants of this progenitor.

A Mrs. Whitney lost several children by a bad humor, which they inherited from her.

Mr. E. F. Claflin, and his mother, maternal grandmother, and all his brothers, were affected with a dry and shrinking skin, and consequent cracking, bleeding, and soreness of their hands and faces.

Salt rheum and erysipelas are also hereditary, and can be traced both backward and laterally in nearly all those cases where it appears. We rest this issue, and others of a kindred character, on the observation of the reader.

335. BLINDNESS, DEAFNESS, AND STAMMERING

Are often transmitted. Dr. Howe's researches establish these positions. Four of the eight children of James A. Bullard, of Monticello, New York, are blind, and have been since about their fifth year, before which they saw. Their parents see, but an aunt is blind 318 Weak and defective eyes are often inherited, as all can see for themselves.

Both near and far-sightedness are often entailed, and so are cross-eyes. The St. Louis Gazette says: "A friend recently met an emigrating family, the father, mother, and all the children of which—not a few-down to the smallest urchin, were CROSS-EYED.'

STAMMERING is hereditary. Daniel Webster's grandfather stuttered badly. His father lisped all his life, and Ezekiel, Daniel's brother, was never able, though he labored hard, to speak some words correctly.

That lung hemorrhage is hereditary, has been virtually established in proving that consumption 326 and this its frequent concomitant is hereditary, and is confirmed by general observation.

Tendency to nose-bleeding is also transmitted. So is the bleeding tendency in general. In 1844, a man living on Cape Cod was bleeding, and had been for several weeks, from only a small wound, notwithstanding every effort made to arrest