HEREDITARY, an appellation given to whatever belongs to a family by right of succession from heir to heir.
Hereditary. HEREDITARY is also figuratively applied to good or ill qualities supposed to be transmitted from father to son: thus we say virtue and piety are hereditary qualities in such a family; and that in Italy the hatred of families is hereditary. And indeed the gout, king's evil, madness, &c. may really be hereditary diseases.