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xiv
Hereditary Genius
were known to have eminent kinsmen were printed in italics, so the
proportion of failures can easily be compared with that of the successes.
Each list was followed, as the list of the judges had been, with a brief
dictionary of kinships, all being afterwards tabulated and discussed in the
same way. Finally the various results were brought together and compared,
showing a remarkable general agreement, with a few interesting
exceptions. One of these exceptions lay in the preponderating influence of
the maternal side in the case of the divines; this was discussed and
apparently accounted for.
The remainder of the volume is taken up with topics that are suggested by
the results of the former portion, such as the comparative worth of different
races, the influences that affect the natural ability of nations, and finally a
chapter of general considerations.
If the work were rewritten, the part of the last chapter which refers to
Darwin's provisional theory of pangenesis would require revision, and ought
to be largely extended, in order to deal with the evidence for and against the
hereditary transmission of habits that were not inborn, but had been
acquired through practice. Marvellous as is the power of the theory of
pangenesis in bringing large classes of apparently different phenomena
under a single law, serious objections have since arisen to its validity, and
prevented its general acceptance. It would, for example, almost compel us
to believe that the hereditary transmission of accidental mutilations and of
acquired aptitudes would be the rule and not the exception. But leaving out
of the question all theoretical reasons against this belief, such as those
which I put forward myself many years ago, as well as the more cogent
ones adduced by Weissman in late years,—putting these wholly aside, and
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