FAMILY LIKENESSES.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3222, 17 June 1879, Page 3

FAMILY LIKENESSES.

Is H,a mere accident, or a, dispensation I of Hie I'rbyidencef which watches orer marrages^ that the daughf2r of a pretly woman very seldom resembles her. Tor a dozen sons tbat are really like their father»it.wou'd be difficult \io find one fiirl who cpuld by any creditable wit»ies3 be recognised by her.resembkice to her mother. The dames—so familiar to comic writers-^-who are jealors of their ;own daughters aye not jealous of lliem because they have become to be equally beauteous, but because they are air aid they iray be thought more so. It is not between mother and daughter, but be 4 tween sisfer and sister, that actual likefieis of feature is so great as to !ead to all sorts of difficulties,. At a country boll trie stringer will seldom fa 4! to see at least one or two of those groups, the ■several members of whl^h , ho feels at once.>lie cr.nnot hope to diEtinguish from op©; another. If it were the hab't of brothers to resemble one another as| closely as sisters Co, it would be a des-j perate task indeed to find means of .identifying them. To mark them down hj\ the aid of the;? studs and wtftoh chains; would be an almost superhuman effort,' and taere would be nothing else in the dreary blank of black clothes and wbitej linen to afford a hopeful clue. But, in a! family of sisters, there are generally some' who hate received somehow-^as birthday present*, legacies,' a-chery prises, or the like—some badge of honor which the knowing eye will note at'a single glance. But whatever be the distinctive mark--; be it only a simple flower—let the i eligible, or ineligible '6* matrmohial' thoughts intent "go mark it well," I and without fail. For what amount of| subsequent flattery can atone for a first! mistake P What warmth of passion could j gurvire the cunning response; " I think ■ you; are mistaking me for : my sister ? " There are stories at Woolwich, and atij the Unirersities too, for that matter,; of brothers wko worked a sort of co-! oneraiire system in passing theiv exami- j rations, ihey were exactly alike in face j iind4gure,;bat not in intellect. Sowbile: the- one worked up his Latin and Grck,: the other engaged in mathematical pur-! suits, so that by a skilful appearance by ) turns in the several examina ,;on rooms i each was able to pass twice—once for him- j self and once for his brother in etch of the ■ necessary subjects Such a tale presup-! poses that the infernal impostors were fiok"bn\j alikd in other respects, but also in the tone of the toicf and id the liandwrif 'ng»'" Eat there is eren less improbability* of this than of the other parts of the deception. Of all the peculiarities of family likeness nothing is perhaps so citiour as the matter of handwriting. Jlie expert will often trace a common siyle as far as second consins, and a curioasly fashioned M* or N. may be hunted back like a queer-shaped nose, from son tt father up to the time of the Roundheads and Ca+t&TS. Is the "iamily rolce," which ereiy one can recognise »Is 6; the; result of physical conformation or is it tho result of habil— an infectious a;sbrder or a raritagious charm ? These are questions which the physiological, ethnological, ited *nthropoto&ical world hatf not yet quite sufficiently considered. Perhaps sc ne man of science will collect statistics and start a few theories, which, whether true or false, will be sura at least of arousing rehement discussions amongst the race of medical authorities. \