MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 369 



MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 



BY FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS, M.D., 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



THIS inquiry into the characteristics of royalty, of which the follow- 

 ing pages are a summary, is an attempt to solve several interest- 

 ing and important questions. First, by including all modern royal 

 families, it tries to give a fair estimate of the mental and moral status 

 of these privileged personages as compared to the world in general. 

 Second, it seeks to find the influences on the individual and on the 

 breed of that environment of rank and power in which these specially 

 elect have lived and moved. Third, by taking a great group of inter- 

 related human beings with known pedigrees and characteristics, it 

 seeks to throw a little light, in the nature of facts, on the old enigma — 

 Which is the more important, environment or heredity, or do both 

 together somewhat fail to explain all the phenomena, and must we pos- 

 tulate a third ultra-natural cause, working aside from biological laws, 

 in order to account for all the varying facts of personal history and 

 character ? 



It is evident that each human being has certain definite mental, 

 moral and physical characteristics and that these are due to not more 

 than three causes, heredity, environment and free-will. The first two 

 are generally considered to play an important part, and the third is 

 far from being ignored by some. It is also very evident that there is 

 but a hundred per cent, of cause for human character, and whatever 

 in our natures is due to one of these causes takes that much from the 

 others. It is the chief aim of these pages, by the use of a scientific 

 method, to get an insight, rough though it may be, into the propor- 

 tionate influence played by these three factors in the make-up of mental 

 and moral life. 



The other questions touched upon are the effects of inbreeding, the 

 relation of genius to insanity and sterility, and also the relationship 

 between the rise of a country and the character of the blood of its 

 kings. This last has been strikingly evident in several instances, 

 notably Spain, Portugal and Prussia, where the prosperity of the lands 

 have been a reflection of the ability of the rulers. Here one can trace 

 a hidden but important cause for the condition of the country in the 

 different combinations of ingredients of blood which have led to the 

 individual peculiarities in the men and women who ruled over these 

 realms and stamped their impress upon them. 



vol. lxi. — 24. 



