In short, the judicious employment of all the harmless arts of the toilet, and of those numerous and effective means which modern science offers, to acquire, to preserve, and to embellish beauty, is a duty which woman, whether married or single, should never neglect. With very little trouble, the good looks and freshness of youth can be guarded almost to old age; and, even when hopelessly gone, simple and harmless means are at hand to repair the injuries of years, or at least to conceal them. But this is an art which would require a whole volume to treat of, and which we cannot here touch upon.
INHERITANCE.
We now come to the consideration of a very wonderful subject,—that of inheritance. It is one of absorbing interest, both because of the curious facts it presents, and of the great practical bearing it has upon the welfare of every individual.
In order to the better understanding of this matter, it is necessary at the outset to make a distinction between four kinds or varieties of inheritance. The most generally recognised is direct inheritance,—that in which the children partake of the qualities of the father and mother. But a child may not resemble either parent, while it bears a striking likeness to an uncle or aunt. This constitutes indirect inheritance. Again, a child may be more like one of its grandparents than either its father or mother. Or, what is still more astonishing, it may display some of the characteristics possessed only by a remote ancestor. This form of inheritance is known by the scientific term atavism, derived from the Latin word atavus, meaning an ancestor. It is curious to note in this connection that sometimes a son resembles more closely his maternal than his paternal grandsire in some male attribute,—as a peculiarity of beard, or certain diseases confined to the male sex. Though the mother cannot possess or exhibit such male qualities, she has transmitted them through her blood, from her father to her son.
The fourth variety of inheritance is that in which the child resembles neither parent, but the first husband of its mother. A woman contracting a second marriage, transmits to the offspring of that marriage the peculiarities she has received through the first union. Breeders of stock know this tendency, and prevent their brood-mares, cows, or sheep from running with males of an inferior stock. Thus the diseases of a man may be transmitted to children which are not his own. Even though dead, he continues to exert an influence over the future offspring of his wife, by means of the ineffaceable impress he had made in the conjugal relation upon her whole system, as we have previously mentioned. The mother finds in the children of her second marriage
'... the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still.'
A child may therefore suffer through the operation of this mysterious and inexorable law, for sins committed not by its own father, but by the first husband of its mother. What a serious matter, then, is that relation between the sexes called marriage! How far-reaching are its responsibilities!
A distinction must here be drawn between hereditary transmission and the possession of qualities at birth, which have not been the result of any impression received from the system of father or mother, but due to mental influences or accidents operating through the mother. A child may be born idiotic or deformed, not because either parent or one of its ancestors was thus affected, but from the influence of some severe mental shock received by the mother during her pregnancy. This subject of maternal impressions will come up for separate consideration in the discussion of pregnancy. Again, a child may be epileptic, although there is no epilepsy in the family, simply because of the intoxication of the father or mother at the time of the intercourse resulting in conception. Such cases are not due to hereditary transmission, for that cannot be hereditary which has been possessed by neither the parents nor any other relatives.