Reversive anomalies in the study of the neuroses / by Irving C. Rosse.

  • Rosse, Irving C. (Irving Collins), 1842-1901.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reversive anomalies in the study of the neuroses / by Irving C. Rosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    grain belongs to one or the other race. A farmer, having accidentally discovered an ear of corn en- tirely brown, called the attention of Broca to this extraordinary circumstance. He considered it a natural variety, produced spontaneously, perhaps, under the influence of an atavism going back to a great number of generations. The grains of this ear having been planted, gave sixty-nine ears, thirty-five of which were light and thirty- four brown. Repeated experiments gave equal results. A fact worth noting on this point is that all the ears of the same stalk were of the same color. Atavism is shown in the seminal principle that passes secretly through a generation, as is seen in certain insects, the wood-louse, for instance, where a single fecundation answers for nine gen- erations of insects, all of whom are born prolific, and procreate without the help of the male. In this case the individual of the ninth generation has received his life, his form, and his instincts from an eighth grandfather, a long time disap- peared. Another example of an anatomical or- der occurs in silk-worms of a white race who pro- duce a certain number of yellow cocoons, although these have been carefully weeded out for more than a century. The same law that governs the vital continuity in the foregoing instances applies to the lower animals and to mankind. Atavism in pigeons is well known; and nearly every one has noticed the stripes on certain horses, which are a rever- sion to their common ancestor, the zebra. Ac- cording to Quatrefages, it is in vain that they kill each year, in the flock of black sheep in Andalu- sia, every lamb that bears the least trace of white wool; each year there are born still some indi- viduals that have the proscribed tint. In domes-