36 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



such anticipations may be limited to special 

 groups of families. 



When we pass from mental to moral qualities, 

 we find ourselves in the presence of problems 

 which could not be thoroughly dealt with in these 

 pages. The general question, how far the moral 

 characteristics of each person born into the world 

 depend on those of the parents, or more general- 

 ly of the ancestry, is one involving many consid- 

 erations which, perhaps unfortunately, have been 

 associated with religious questions. And apart 

 from this, the answers to this question have been 

 found to have a very wide range — from the opin- 

 ion of those who, like Miss Martineau, consider 

 that our characters, even where they seem to un- 

 dergo changes resulting from the exercise of will, 

 are entirely due to inheritance, to the view of 

 those who consider, like Heinroth, that no moral 

 characteristic can possibly be regarded as inherit- 

 ed in such sort as to modify either responsibility 

 for evil-doing or credit for well-doing. Probably 

 most will be content to accept a view between 

 these extremes, without too nicely considering 

 how far moral responsibility is affected by the in- 

 fluence of inherited tendencies. 



There are, however, some illustrations relating 

 to exceptional habits, which may be mentioned 

 here, without bringing in the general question. 



We have not referred to insanity in speaking 

 of inherited mental qualities, because insanity 

 must be regarded as a disease of the moral rather 

 than of the mental nature. Its origin may be in 

 the mind, as the origin of mental diseases is in 

 the brain, that is, is in the body ; but the princi- 

 pal manifestations of insanity, those which must 

 guide us in determining its true position, are un- 

 questionably those relating to moral habitudes. 

 Insanity is not always, or at least not always 

 demonstrably, hereditary. Esquirol found among 

 1,375 lunatics 337 unquestionable cases of heredi- 

 tary transmission. Guislain and others regard 

 hereditary lunacy as including, roughly, one- 

 fourth of the cases of insanity. Moreau and 

 others hold that the proportion is greater. It 

 appears, however, that mental alienation is not 

 the only form in which the insanity of an ances- 

 tor may manifest itself. Dr. Morel gives the fol- 

 lowing instructive illustration of the "varied and 

 odd complications occurring in the hereditary 

 transmission of nervous disease:" He attended 

 four brothers belonging to one family. The 

 grandfather of these children had died insane ; 

 their father had never been able to continue long 

 at anything; their uncle, a man of great intellect 

 and a distinguished physician, was noted for his 



eccentricities. Now, these four children, sprung 

 from one stock, presented very different forms of 

 physical disorder. One of them was a maniac, 

 whose wild paroxysms occurred periodically. The 

 disorder of the second was melancholy madness ; 

 he was reduced by his stupor to a merely auto- 

 matic condition. The third was characterized by 

 an extreme irascibility and suicidal disposition. 

 The fourth manifested a strong liking for art, but 

 he was of a timorous and suspicious nature. This 

 story seems in some degree to give support to the 

 theory that genius and mental aberration are not 

 altogether alien ; that, in fact — 



" Great wit to madness nearly is allied, 

 And thin partitions do their bounds divide." 



Of the hereditary transmission of idiocy, we 

 naturally have not the same kind of evidence. 

 The madness often, if not generally, comes on or 

 shows itself late in life, whereas idiocy is not 

 often developed in the adult. Insanity is the 

 diseased or weakened condition of a mind pos- 

 sessing all the ordinary thinking faculties ; idiocy 

 implies that some of these faculties are altogether 

 wanting. It has been asserted, by-the-way, that 

 idiocy is a product of civilization. The civilized 

 " present, as peoples," says Dr. Duncan, " indica- 

 tions of defective vital force, "which are not wit- 

 nessed among those human beings that live in a 

 state of nature. There must be something rot- 

 ten in some parts of our boasted civilization ; and 

 not only a something which has to do with our 

 psychology, but a great deal more with our pow- 

 er of physical persistence. It is a fact that the 

 type of the perfect-minded, just above the highest 

 idiots, or the simpletons, is more distinguishable 

 among the most civilized of the civilized, than 

 among those who are the so-called children of 

 Nature. Dolts, boobies, stupids, et hoc genus omne, 

 abound in young Saxondom ; but their represent- 

 atives are rare among the tribes that are slowly 

 disappearing before the white man." But it 

 seems barely possible that the difference may be 

 due to the care with which civilized communities 

 interfere to prevent the elimination of idiot in- 

 fants by the summary process of destroying them. 

 The writer from whom I have just quoted refers 

 to the fact that, even under the Roman Empire, 

 as during the Republic, idiots were looked upon 

 as "useless entities by the practical Roman." 

 They had no sanctity in his eyes, and hence their 

 probable rarity ; doubtless the unfortunate chil- 

 dren were neglected, and there is much reason 

 for believing that they were " exposed." " A con- 

 genital idiot soon begins to give trouble," proceeds 

 Dr. Duncan, " and to excite unusual attention ; 



