264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A STUDY IN JEWISH PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 



By Dr. J. G. WILSON 



A. A. SURGEON, PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, ELLIS ISLAND 



THIS is preeminently the day of preventive medicine. The cam- 

 paign started many years ago to educate the people in the man- 

 ner of avoiding contagious diseases has gradually been extended to 

 other fields, until now the prophylaxis of insanity is almost as freely 

 discussed as that of puerperal fever. And this is as it should be. 

 Though the recovery of the already insane and the feeble-minded is 

 seldom permanently accomplished, the outlook for the final prevention 

 of these conditions among the potentially insane is by no means hope- 

 less. The work undertaken by such organizations as the National 

 Committee for Mental Hygiene, and the various allied state organiza- 

 tions and societies having the same general end in view are well known, 

 and although the good already accomplished in the way of educating 

 the people in those habits of life and thought which tend to make the 

 development of mental afflictions less likely, is as yet inconsiderable, it 

 promises, in the long run, to bring forth excellent results. 



More and more we are coming to a realization of the importance 

 of a good heredity. All medical men are practically agreed upon this 

 subject. In the prevention of feeble-mindedness it is the one essential 

 factor. It is of hardly less importance in the prevention of insanity. 

 In an article on the hygiene of the mind, a recent writer has said " An 

 individual who comes from normal stock, abstains from alcohol, and is 

 free from syphilis, and escapes accidental head injury is not threatened 

 with mental alienation." 1 



Conklin in the " Mating of the Unfit " refers to the offspring of 

 one normal man by two separate women, one a feeble-minded girl and 

 the other a perfectly well-balanced individual. The descendants of 

 the feeble-minded woman were 480 in number, and of these 143 in- 

 herited the tainted mentality. The normal woman had 365 descendants 

 and not one of them was to be classed among the mentally defective. 2 



It is also universally agreed that the propagation of tainted stock 

 is much more likely when there is a close inbreeding of such stock. 

 The best should be bred to the best, but different types of the same 

 strain and close blood affinities should be avoided. 



A fact so generally conceded should be applied as far as possible to 

 the principles of marriage between individuals of both the same and 



1 A. J. Rosanoff, reprint from New York State Hospital Bulletin, November, 

 1911. 



2 Editorial, The Lancet Clinic, March 7, 1912. 



