78 THE FEEBLY INHIBITED. 



over- talkative ; had a rhyming tendency, a flight of ideas, and a desire 

 to dance. 



The normal-depressed condition to which the formula e 2 c 2 is applied 

 is exemplified in the mother of mating 86c. She is apt to worry and 

 brood, but never to speak of her troubles ; she is permanently depressed 

 even when well, and, after the birth of her last child, she began to talk 

 incoherently and to entertain delusions; her mind became confused; 

 she spoke of suicide and asked to be hung. Her mother (mating 866) 

 was a nervous, quiet woman, who cried easily and worried constantly. 

 At the age of 25 years she had a spell of exceptional depression and acted 

 and talked wildly; she is said to have been poetical. 



To the normal individual is assigned the formula e 2 C 2 . This formula 

 is frequently applied to a person of whom we have only the statement 

 that he was normal. It is properly applied to a person who has no 

 extremes of mood. Such, e. g., is the father in mating 15. For many 

 years he taught school; he has a generous disposition; is religious but 

 not narrow; he liked the country best, but moved to the city for his 

 wife's sake ; after her death he returned to the country and engaged in 

 farming. Again, mating 2, the father is a hardworking farmer, even- 

 tempered, industrious, temperate, and patient with his wife. 



There are, of course, numerous intermediate grades, and to these the 

 various formulae in table A are applied, as seem most apt. 



But a second criterion has also to be observed. As is well known, 

 persons may carry in their germ-cells determiners for "recessive" 

 traits that they do not show. Hence "ancestry," including collaterals, 

 must be considered to learn the probability that such recessive trait is 

 carried. Since, by hypothesis, the depressed condition is due to the 

 absence of the C determiner and is thus recessive, likewise since a 

 normal state, e, is recessive to E, such determiners for recessive condi- 

 tions must be looked for in the family history. If the antecedent family 

 history is sufficiently complete, it may absolutely fix the zygotic com- 

 position of the individual in question, and so his gametic composition 

 becomes precisely known. Repeatedly, in our table, we have cases of 

 children to whom a zygotic formula has been applied based on probable 

 parental gametes. These are parents in another mating, where that 

 same zygotic formula has served well to interpret the conditions found 

 in their children. These cases are too numerous to cite. They will 

 be found in most cases where 2 matings in the same family have been 

 included in table C. 



Moreover, in assigning a zygotic formula to a parent, especially if 

 the ancestry of the parent is imperfectly known, some account may, 

 occasionally, be taken of the progeny. This is done only with caution, 

 as it tends to test the hypothesis by a bit of circular reasoning; and 

 yet it is justifiable to employ the method to a limited extent where 

 progeny furnish the only clue to gametic composition of the parent. 



