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HEKEDITABY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 99
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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¦ ' W ¦ 'I ' I Form In The The Qualities...
inheritance of their parents' infirmity , are in nine cases out of tentotal abstainersand exceedingly exemplary in all the
relations , of life . In , both cases the law of transmission has been conquered by the law of antagonismand the influence of
, the parents overpowered by a -reactionary power . Goodness has been made wearisome in the first example ; in
the other , the daily sight of the horrible misery and discomfort of a drunkard's home has created a wholesome disgust and
terror of the vice which caused it . In either case a natural revulsion of feeling wins the day .
The very perfection of physical beauty and intellect , without a corresponding vigour of health , is but as a brilliant bubble , sure
to collapse at the slightest shock . Life is a conflict in a sense widely different to that in which this phrase is commonly
understood . It is a long war beginning with our birth and ending only with our deatha war defensive and aggressivebetween
ourselves and other , forces . So long as by virtue of , our vital power we can compel the elements to render to us what we
require , and receive from us what we must eliminate , so long we live . But so soon as that power fails us , the heterogeneous atoms
the of which law of our ch bod emical y is composed affinities , steps hasten in ? to we obey are a what new master is called
dead . The old tenement is at the mercy of certain destroying agencies ; the prey is takendividedand appropriatedto
reappear in other forms . Moriendu , m , est non omnis moriar , . For of death in the sense of annihilation there is properly
speaking no such thing . " We change but cannot die . " Perfect health may be defined as the harmonious working of
defying this system all external of counterpoise influences ; it , of is appropriating the power of all successfull external y
material , and the possession of perfect , sound , and elastic health , is in itself an exquisite enjoyment . But if health can
be transmitted , according to the laws which we have attempted com to describe e to be , considered so likewise as can more disease than , and others certain hereditary maladies in their have
cases nature are . Such often are seen gout due , scroful to atavism a , insanity or an , cestr & c . al Very influence curious in
virtue of whichinstead of the father or motherthe counterp , art of the grandfather , or grandmotheror even , of some more
remote progenitor is reproduced either , in personal appearance , dispositionor constitutional tendencies . This anomaly has
been explained , in the hypothesis that the law of transmission has been temporarily overpowered by a stronger influence
introduced by marriage , but the working of the problem is too obscure to hazard a definite _oj _^ inion concerning it . Longevity
has been called an inheritance in certain families ; but we
should feel more disposed to say that vigour of constitution ,
Hekeditaby Transmission Of Qualities. 99
HEKEDITABY _TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES . 99
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1864, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041864/page/27/
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