INHERITED INSTINCTS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2278, 15 September 1899, Page 4

INHERITED INSTINCTS.

Legal history teems with records of Itrange bequests made by eccentric testators, but the strangest legacies in the world are those on which no duty is payable and with which the lawyers have nothing to do. Theae are the quaint personal habits and peculiarities which a person inherits from his ancestors. A little over two years ago an Austrian nobleman committed suicide in BudaPesth while under arreßt on a charge of pilfering from a jeweller's counter. A strange story was unfolded to ths lawyers who wound up the Count s affairs after the inquest, which went to show that the culprit was merely the victim of a mania which he had inherited. His great grandfather was a confirmed kleptomaniac, and as the founder of the family he had bequeathed a considerable fortune, but with it he had also bequeathed the terrible malady with which lie was himself afflicted. His son was for years exiled from society for pilfering in the Royal Palace, one of his i/randsons fell into similar disgrace, and Count came to the end mentioned above.

Another remarkable instance of hereditary taint ihe writer can record in the case of an office boy, who had quite a genius for imitating signatures. One day the cashier sent him to the bank to cash a cheque for £5. A day or two afterwards the lad cashed another cheque, and this time it was one he had written out himself. When the de. ficiency in the accounts was discovered, the forged cheque came up for examination, but so perfect was the imitation that both cashier and principal declared at lirßt that the signatures were genuine. It was afterwards learned that the lad was a grandson of one of the most noted forgers of modern times, but this terrible fact had never been made known to him. He had taken to forgery owing simply to his own inherited instinct.

Such a thing as an unquenchable thirst lias been known to descend in families from generation to generation with the utmost regularity. Less than a month ago a near relation of the present writer was released from a home for inebriates declared to be incurable. One of his ancestors left a considerable fortune so his children, but he had also bequeathed a craving for strong drink. For three generations now some member of the family has been notorious as a toper in the town in which they have lived, and, although the present heir to this singular legacy is a man of position and education, no means yet devised can keep him from the temptation. The strongest instance of hereditary instinct, however, which the writer has been able to gather is vouched for by the South American Consul of a Yorkshire town. Many years ago, while staying in San Salvador, in Brazil, with an English merchant who resided there, he noticed a very Btrange peculiarity of his host. It was the latter's habit to rise punctually at six o'clock ; but at four o'clock every morning he got out of bed, made a cup of strong tea with materials he had ready, then went to bed again to sleep until six. For years he indulged in this habit, and he declared that if he missed he could neither get his full night'd rest nor perform his quantum of work for the day. Last year the Consul was again in San Salvador, and stayed some days with the son of his old friend the English merchant. To his unbounded surprise, he found the son possessed the same peculiar habit his father indulged in years before, the only difference being that he was an hour later. Every morning he brewed his cup of tea at five o'clock, and, after going aßleep again for a while, rose punctually at seven. On being informed of his father's habit, the young merchant was astounded, and he positively declared he had never heard of it before, and that the habit was prompted purely by his own instinct. A circumstance which strongly bears out this statement is the fact that his father died when the son was very young, and it was veryunlikely that his mother would have taught him the habit