the adoption of a more scientific doctrine, one that recognises a process of compensation, neutralisation, and accentuation, would probably bring us nearer the truth.  But whatever the complicated working of the law of heredity may be, there can be no doubt that the tracing of a remarkable man’s pedigree is always an interesting and rarely an entirely idle occupation.  Pursuing such an inquiry with regard to Frederick Chopin, we find ourselves, however, soon at the end of our tether.  This is the more annoying, as there are circumstances that particularly incite our curiosity.  The “Journal de Rouen” of December 1, 1849, contains an article, probably by Amedee de Mereaux, in which it is stated that Frederick Chopin was descended from the French family Chopin d’Arnouville, of which one member, a victim of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had taken refuge in Poland. [Footnote:  In scanning the Moniteur of 1835, I came across several prefects and sous-prefects of the name of Choppin d’Arnouville. (There are two communes of the name of Arnouville, both are in the departement of the Seine et Oise—­ the one in the arrondissement Mantes, the other in the arrondissement Pontoise.  This latter is called Arnouville-les-Gonesse.) I noticed also a number of intimations concerning plain Chopins and Choppins who served their country as maires and army officers.  Indeed, the name of Chopin is by no means uncommon in France, and more than one individual of that name has illustrated it by his achievements—­to wit:  The jurist Rene Chopin or Choppin (1537—­1606), the litterateur Chopin (born about 1800), and the poet Charles-Auguste Chopin (1811—­1844).] Although this confidently-advanced statement is supported by the inscription on the composer’s tombstone in Pere Lachaise, which describes his father as a French refugee, both the Catholicism of the latter and contradictory accounts of his extraction caution us not to put too much faith in its authenticity.  M. A. Szulc, the author of a Polish book on Chopin and his works, has been told that Nicholas Chopin, the father of Frederick, was the natural son of a Polish nobleman, who, having come with King Stanislas Leszczynski to Lorraine, adopted there the name of Chopin.  From Karasowski we learn nothing of Nicholas Chopin’s parentage.  But as he was a friend of the Chopin family, and from them got much of his information, this silence might with equal force be adduced for and against the correctness of Szulc’s story, which in itself is nowise improbable.  The only point that could strike one as strange is the change of name.  But would not the death of the Polish ruler and the consequent lapse of Lorraine to France afford some inducement for the discarding of an unpronounceable foreign name?  It must, however, not be overlooked that this story is but a hearsay, relegated to a modest foot-note, and put forward without mention of the source whence it is derived. [Footnote:  Count Wodzinski, who leaves Nicholas Chopin’s descent an open question,