spring suffered from syphilitic symptoms of an unmistakeable character, of which the latter perished. I have no means of determining the mode of origin of this malady in the first-named example; and the evidence in the second was, unfortunately, of a hearsay kind only, but it was strongly in favour of its specific nature. In a third instance, however, in which the disease was well marked in a husband, and proved fatal both to his wife and a numerous offspring, the evidence of its syphilitic origin was conclusive, or at least as convincing as such kind of evidence commonly can be. This case, should its historical validity be admitted, leads to the inference that the disease in the two preceding instances may have had a similar commencement.

With reference to the treatment of the class of diseases under consideration, my opinion, after a varied practice in this department, remains very nearly the same as it was four years since. since. Whether the taint be of recent or of ancient date, I have invariably found it necessary to pursue a decided course of mercurial treatment, aided, at the proper stages, by sea-water and mineral baths, change of climate if practicable, and a rigid system of hygiene practised through a long period.

The present treatise is intended to be an exposition of the results of additional practice in the department of pathology referred to in the preceding quotations. Several of the cases formerly recorded have since been kept under notice, and are here reproduced with extended historical particulars, serving to elucidate the peculiar habitudes of morbid poisons.

Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the

conclusions arrived at in this work, there can be no doubt that the cases recorded in it, and which are a faithful transcript of the facts, are eminently suggestive, and that the subject is one which very nearly concerns the happiness and well-being of mankind.

MANCHESTER, August, 1851.

CHAPTER I.

DOCTRINE OF HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION.

In matters relating to the natural history of mankind, and to that of the animal creation at large, there are few points upon which writers appear to be more generally agreed than that which has reference to the perpetuation of constitutional peculiarities from generation to generation. This law obtains as regards both the physical and the moral attributes. The former, however, is undoubtedly the more characteristically consistent as regards the congenital impress, but is variously modified in its afterdevelopment by the operations of the mental processes, being variously qualified by education, occupation, change of climate, and other controlling influences.

The peculiar traits appertaining to a family of children are, for the most part, adequately prominent to distinguish all the members of it from those of another, even though deriving from the same stock; and further, how widely soever these allied groups may appear to differ the one from the other, there is generally existing, among the collateral branches of a widely-spread progeny, a degree of similarity sufficient to indicate their origin from a common parentage, although of antique remoteness.

In countries and districts where common interest, feelings of prejudice, or other circumstances have operated in binding men together through a succession of