5.  INHERITING DISEASE.  Consumption—­that dread foe of modern life—­is the most frequently encountered of all affections as the result of inherited predispositions.  Indeed, some of the most eminent physicians have believed it is never produced in any other way.  Heart disease, disease of the throat, excessive obesity, affections of the skin, asthma, disorders of the brain and nervous system, gout, rheumatism and cancer, are all hereditary.  A tendency to bleed frequently, profusely and uncontrollably, from trifling wounds, is often met with as a family affection.

6.  MENTAL DERANGEMENTS.—­Almost all forms of mental derangements are hereditary—­one of the parents or near relation being afflicted.  Physical or bodily weakness is often hereditary, such as scrofula, gout, rheumatism, rickets, consumption, apoplexy, hernia, urinary calculi, hemorrhoids or piles, cataract, etc.  In fact, all physical weakness, if ingrafted in either parent, is transmitted from parents to offspring, and is often more strongly marked in the latter than in the former.

7.  MARKS AND DEFORMITIES.—­Marks and deformities are all transmissible from parents to offspring, equally with diseases and peculiar proclivities.  Among such blemishes may be mentioned moles, hair-lips, deficient or supernumerary fingers, toes, and other characteristics.  It is also asserted that dogs and cats that have accidentally lost their tails, bring forth young similarly deformed.  Blumenbach tells of a man who had lost his little finger, having children with the same deformity.

8.  CAUTION.—­Taking facts like these into consideration, how very important is it for persons, before selecting partners for life, to deliberately weigh every element and circumstances of this nature, if they would insure a felicitous union, and not entail upon their posterity disease, misery and despair.  Alas! in too many instances matrimony is made a matter of money, while all earthly joys are sacrificed upon the accursed altars of lust and mammon.

[Illustration:  Outdoor Sports Good Training For Morals As Well As Health.]

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PREPARATION FOR MATERNITY.

1.  WOMAN BEFORE MARRIAGE.—­It is not too much to say that the life of women before marriage ought to be adjusted with more reference to their duties as mothers than to any other one earthly object.  It is the continuance of the race which is the chief purpose of marriage.  The passion of amativeness is probably, on the whole, the most powerful of all human impulses.  Its purpose, however, is rather to subserve the object of continuing the species, than merely its own gratification.

2.  EXERCISE.—­Girls should be brought up to live much in the open air, always with abundant clothing against wet and cold.  They should be encouraged to take much active exercise; as much, if they; want to, as boys.  It is as good for little girls to run and jump, to ramble in the woods, to go boating, to ride and drive, to play and “have fun” generally, as for little boys.