We often find children who offer a striking resemblance to a paternal

grandfather, a maternal aunt or a maternal great-grandmother. This is

known as atavism. There are many curious variations with regard to the

inheritance of ancestral traits. Some children show a remarkable

resemblance to their fathers in childhood, others to their mothers.

And many qualities of certain individual ancestors appear quite

suddenly late in life. Everything may be inherited, from the most

delicate shadings of the disposition, the intelligence and the will

power, to the least details of hair, nails and bone structure, etc.

And the combination of the qualities of one's ancestors in heredity is

so manifold and so unequal that it is extremely difficult to arrive at

fixed conclusions regarding it. Hereditary traits and tendencies are

developed out of the energies of the original conjugated germ-cells

throughout life, up to the very day of death. Even aged men often show

peculiarities in the evening of their life which may be clearly

recognized as inherited, and duplicating others shown by their

forbears at the same period of life.

As has already been mentioned every individual inherits, generally

speaking, as much from his paternal as from his maternal progenitors.

This in spite of the fact that the tiny paternal germ-cell is the

only medium of transmission of the paternal qualities, while the

mother furnishes the much larger egg-cell, and feeds him throughout

the embryonic period.

THE ENGRAM

An interesting theory maintains that the external impressions made

upon an organism which reacts to them and receives them, might be

called _engrams_ or "inscriptions." Thus the impression of some object

we have seen or touched (let us say we have seen a lion) may remain

engraved on our mind as an impression. Hence every memory picture is

one of engrams, whether the impression is a conscious one or an

unconscious one. According to this same theory the reawakening of an

older impression is an _ecphory_. Some new stimulation may thus

ecphorate an old engram. Now the entire embryonal development of the

human child is in reality no more than a continuous process of

ecphoration of old engrams, one after another. And the entire complex

of our living human organism is made up entirely of these

energy-complexes engraved on our consciousness or subconsciousness.

The sum total of all these engrams, in a living human being, according

to the theory advanced, is given the name of _mnema_. That which the




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