The diseases of infants and children.

  • Cautley, Edmund, 1864-1944.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The diseases of infants and children. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    37/1068 (page 17)
    Possibly other affections will be found to conform to this law, when they have been traced through a sufficient number of generations. Among these may be mentioned asthma and hay fever, exostoses, accessory auricles and helical fistulfe. The law may be disguised or interfered with by the sex factor, as in pseudohypertrophy and haemophilia ; and by the transmitted character being a recessive, perhaps attracting no attention. Malformations in the embryo chick have been produced by shaking the egg, warming one side, varnishing the shell, and the injection of toxins. So, too, interference with the mammalian embryo in the very early stage may cause abnormality, which must be distinguished from an inherited peculiarity. Dimpling may arise from inflammatory adhesions between the amnion and the integuments. Distortions and amputations may possibly be due to a like cause or to constriction by the umbilical cord. Eeference may be made to some of the affections above mentioned. Slight or gross peculiarities of structure are often transmitted through several generations. A family likeness is constantly seen, especially if there is a characteristic feature, such as the nose or chin. Sometimes the resemblance is to a more distant ancestor than the parent. This is spoken of as Reversion. Atavism is the appearance of a character indicative of the evolutionary ancestry of the species. Atavistic tendencies are present in all-infants. The newly born babe, even though premature, is strikingly strong in the hands and arms, and in many cases can support its own weight for as long as two minutes. Its upper limbs are relatively more developed thau the lower ones. This has been assigned as evidence of descent from a tree- climbing ancestor, since it would be essential for the infant to be able to cling firmly to its mother when climbing or escaping from her foes. It is not due to the peculiarities of the foetal circulation, for this is the same in mammals in whom the hind limbs predominate in growth. Possibly, congenital hyperplasia of the pylorus, and rumination or merycism, are evidence of a still more remote descent from a vegetarian ancestor. Polymastia and polythelia are probably atavistic. The transmission of characteristic habits, attitudes, and gaits, may be the result of conscious or unconscious imitation. Often this explanation can be excluded by the death or disappearance of the parent; or the peculiarity may have been transmitted from a remote ancestor. Moral and psychical characters follow the same law. It is a happy explanation when a parent can satisfy himself that unpleasant deviations from the normal in the temper, intellect, or morals of the child, are the result of a reversion to a more distant ancestor. Generally it is the parent from whom the peculiarity is inherited. Often it is due to unsuitable methods of education, bad example, and unsatisfactory environment. A trivial peculiarity may be transmitted in a most persistent manner.. A tuft of white hair has been handed on, always in the same shape, to the first and last children of the family for seven generations. In another