F. W. Mott.Medicine and Eugenics.
formerly at the Manor Asylum. The pedigrees he has obtained show con
clusively that we must judge the right of a patient to propagate who has
had an attack of insanity by a full consideration of his pedigree. Certain
pedigrees which I have are of interest in relation to the question of alcohol;
they are numerically insufficient to draw any conclusions, all we can say is
they are indicative of a devitalisation of the germ when chronic poisoning
occurs in successive generations. (Figs. 7, 14.)
Statistics Relati?ig to 3,118 Relatives
They show the following facts :—
1. In the insane offspring of insane parents, daughters are much more
numerous than sons.
2. Amongst insane members of the same family (brothers and sisters)
sisters are more numerous than brothers.
This may be correlated with the fact that more women are in asylums
than men. There are several reasons for this : general paralysis, which
is a fatal disease, is three times more frequent in men than in women; the
recoveries in women do not bear the same proportion as in men. Now,
why should women be more liable to become insane than men ? I will briefly
summarize the causes which, in my opinion, are operative :—
1. The physiological emergencies connected with reproduction, i.e., the
menstrual periods, child-bearing, and the cessation of the period of repro
duction, the climacterium.
I would also add as an important and perhaps the only cause in many
instances the enforced suppression by modern social conditions of the repro
ductive functions and the maternal instincts in women of an emotional
temperament and mental instability.
Anticipation or Antedating.
Dr. Maudsley has observed that Nature tends to mend or end a de
generate stock. Now, how could Nature best end or mend a degenerate
stock ? Obviously by segregating in a relatively few germs all the unsound
elements, leaving the others as it were free. The accompanying figure 15
helps to explain this theory.
Assuming the intensity of inheritance is constant for each chromosome or
other unit of germ-plasm, but to vary with the number of the germinal
units tainted, we have as a result of the mating of these two tainted stocks
all degrees of manifestation of ancestral characters from perfect normality
to the most profound disease. The more numerous the tainted germinal
units the greater will be the chance of the disease appearing in the offspring.
On the other hand, the oftener reduction, with its possible random arrange
ment, has occurred—i.e., the greater the number of generations—the less
will be the chance of any particular character finding a place in the inheri
tance (Nettleship).
