During gestation she manifested great uneasiness of
mind, lest the birth of a mulatto offspring should disclose her
conduct. . . . It so happened that her negro husband possessed a
sixth digit on each hand, but there was no peculiarity of any
kind in the white man, yet when the mulatto child was born it
actually presented the deformity of a supernumerary finger.'
Taruffi, the celebrated Italian teratologist, in speaking of the
subject, says: 'Our knowledge of this strange fact is by no means
recent for Fienus, in 1608, said that most of the children born
in adultery have a greater resemblance to the legal than to the
real father'--an observation that was confirmed by the
philosopher Vanini and by the naturalist Ambrosini. From these
observations comes the proverb: 'Filium ex adultera excusare
matrem a culpa.' Osiander has noted telegony in relation to moral
qualities of children by a second marriage. Harvey said that it
has long been known that the children by a second husband
resemble the first husband in features mind, and disposition. He
then gave a case in which this resemblance was very well marked.
Orton, Burdach (Traite de Physiologie), and Dr. William Sedgwick
have all remarked on this physical resemblance; and Dr.
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