2O8 DEGENERACY. 



is the result of unhealthy development. We have plenty of in- 

 stances in which degenerate children have come from feeble, ex- 

 hausted or nervous parents, but we have no such instances in cases 

 where the parents, grand-parents and great-grand-parents have all 

 retained full health and vigor during the entire reproductive period. 

 The cases given substantiate this deduction, and innumerable other 

 cases of the same character might be added. One will be sufficient 

 as it differs from the others in that it shows the effect of age with- 

 out any accompanying evidence of injury or sickness. 



Talbot states 4 that Kiernan has had under observation the case 

 of a Nova Scotian mother of Scotch extraction who bore children 

 till the age of 63. The children born before the age of 50 were all 

 normal and lived to an average age of 60. There was no birth be- 

 tween the ages of 50 and 56, but at the latter age a son was pro- 

 duced who had ear, jaw and skull stigmata, and who became a 

 periodical lunatic at 25. A year later was born a son who was a 

 six-fingered idiot. The next three children became paralytic idiots 

 in infancy. The next was a periodically sexual invert female. The 

 last child was an epileptic. 



These last cases of degeneracy show the results arising from 

 the physical decay of old age and are precisely what the law of use- 

 inheritance would call for. There are, however, certain cases of 

 degenerate families which require additional explanation and, for 

 this purpose, I cannot do better than to commence with the fol- 

 lowing example: 



THE "ISHMAELS" OF INDIANAPOLIS. 



Oscar C. McCullock, speaking of the descendants of a pauper 

 family named "Ishmael," in the city of Indianapolis used the follow- 

 ing language: 



(4) Degeneracy, p. 91. 



