at earth or coals,
and eats of them, the infant which is born carries on its head the mark
of these things." This statement, however, occurs in a work which is
not mentioned by any of the ancient authorities, and is rejected by
practically all the modern ones; according to Ballantyne, there is,
therefore, no absolute proof that Hippocrates was a believer in one of
the most popular and long-persisting beliefs concerning fetal
deformities.

In the explanation of heredity, Hippocrates states "that the body of
the male as well as that of the female furnishes the semen. That which
is weak (unhealthy) is derived from weak (unhealthy) parts, that which
is strong (healthy) from strong (healthy) parts, and the fetus will
correspond to the quality of the semen. If the semen of one part come
in greater quantity from the male than from the female, this part will
resemble more closely the father; if, however, it comes more from the
female, the part will rather resemble the mother. If it be true that
the semen comes from both parents, then it is impossible for the whole
body to resemble either the mother or the father, or neither the one
nor the other in anything, but necessarily the child will resemble both
the one and the other in something. The child will most resemble the
one who contributes most to the formation of the parts." Such was the
Hippocratic theory of generation and heredity, and it was ingeniously
used to explain the hereditary nature of certain diseases and
malformations. For instance, in speaking of the sacred disease
(epilepsy), Hippocrates says: "Its origin is hereditary, like that of
other diseases; for if a phlegmatic person be born of a phlegmatic, and
a bilious of a bilious, and a phthisical of a phthisical, and one
having spleen disease of another having disease of the spleen, what is
to hinder it from happening that where the father and mother were
subject to this disease certain of their offspring should be so
affected also? As the semen comes from all parts of the body, healthy
particles will come from healthy parts, and unhealthy from unhealthy
parts."

According to Pare, Damascene saw a girl with long hair like a bear,
whose mother had constantly before her a picture of the hairy St. John.
Pare also appends an illustration showing the supposed resemblance to a
bear. Jonston quotes a case of Heliodorus; it was an Ethiopian, who by
the effect of the imagination produced a white child. Pare describes
t