ii8Section I.A. Marro.
d’une substance amorphe, qui convertit ces canaux souples et élastiques en
tubes rigides ; d’où vient un ralentissement général des fonctions organiques
(circulation, oxydation, sécrétion); le sang n’arrivant plus au degré d’élabora
tion, qu’il avait avant, acquiert une plus grande acidité, ne peut plus aussi
vite se débarrasser, par la voie ordinaire des émonctoires, des produits de
déchet dont il est chargé. En vertu de ces conditions, l’organisme des
sénescents subit une espèce d’intoxication lente et graduelle qui, de même
qu’elle se révèle en lui par l’alanguissement progressif de toutes ses fonc
tions, influence d’une façon désastreuse les germes qui s’y développent et
les prédispose à devenir des êtres voués à la dégénération.
Par suite, cette cause de dégénération entre dans la catégorie commune
des intoxications.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE AGE OF THE PARENTS
UPON THE PSYCHO-PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE
CHILDREN.
By Antonio Marro.
We note that in nature there prevails a law which governs inheritance
throughout the generations of living beings, but its limits and the influences
which it obeys are sometimes so obscured from us that they almost verge on
mystery. The question of the transmission of characters by inheritance is of ancient
date. As regards physical characters hardly any one denies it, so clear are
the proofs given by races and families; the exceptional cases seem very
rare. Inheritance which relates to moral and intellectual characters is more
disputed. We may recall that the ancient Greeks believed in it as is shown
by the jealous care which Lycurgus showed in his laws in order to secure
the reproduction of the most select men from the point of view of virtue and
worth, to whom he wished that every woman might be able to give herself.
Plato also wished to banish from his Republic the sons and the nephews
of criminals, and Aristotle, in support of his opinion, cites in his Ethics
the example of a wretch who, in order to excuse himself for the bad usage
to which he had made his father submit, exclaimed—“ My father beat
my grandfather. This latter had also ill-used my great-grandfather, and
note well, my son, this villain, as soon as he 9hall have attained the age
and strength of an adult, he will spare me neither blows nor assault.”
