422Section IV.F. W. Mott.
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Fig- 15
A—represents the male parent ; his immature germ-cells have derived their chromosomes,
germinal determinants or representative particles (Galton) from his father and mother, and
they are respectively represented by different figures. The eight germ-mature chromosomes
are reduced to four during maturation, two from each parent; the figures a-f indicate the
combination of two maternal with two paternal, all diseased, but in different degrees and
modes. B—represents the female parent, in which there is an inherited taint, but only to a
slight degree, coming from the maternal side ; in the mature germ-cells only one containing
number 13 will be tainted. C—shows some of the results which may arise from the
conjugation of A X B.
Certainly this idea of the scheme explains certain facts which have been
observed in the pedigrees I have shown; it shows why the offspring of
parents derived from two tainted ancestral stocks are more likely to suffer
with an intense form of the disease; it shows also why more of the offspring
are liable to be affected, and it shows why a certain proportion of the off
spring may escape entirely; but according to the hypothesis thus advanced
it does not explain why only relatively few of the offspring are tainted as
compared with the numbers born, even though there be convergent neuro
pathic inheritance, that is, the germinal determinants of both parents may
be largely tainted and yet fewer offspring are affected by the disease than
would be expected. In neuroses and psychoses it is not a disease that is
transmitted but a predisposition or tendency, and some other factor than
the inborn is required to produce the disease. If we ask ourselves the ques
tion : How could Nature best purify an unsound stock? the obvious answer
would be to cause coalescence or crystallization out of the unsound germinal
determinants into a few of the offspring, leaving the germ-plasm of the
others free. This would not only purify the stock by segregation but by
concentration in one or two offspring; it would lead to intensification and
anticipation of the disease. The diseased offspring would be unfit for the
struggle for existence and propagation. In putting forward this coalescence
theory of similar diseased germinal determinants, I may mention in support
of it a statement made by Galton in his great work on Natural Inheri
tance. In the process of transmission by inheritance elements derived
from the same ancestors are apt to appear in large groups, just as if they
had clung together in the pre-embryonic stage, as perhaps they did.
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