390 



The Journal of Heredity 



I. :! 



MONGOLIAN IDIOCY DUE TO UNBALANCED HORMONES 



Figure 1. It has long been a matter of observation, recently confirmed by statistical 

 studies, that Mongolian idiots are in the great majority of cases the children of women near- 

 ing the menopause, a period when the harmone balance is known to be disturbed. This type 

 of defective children is also born of mothers who have had the normal secretion of their 

 ductless glands upset by the drain of infectious diseases, or from other causes. In this case 

 the mother contracted influenza about eight months before the birth of the third child who 

 is a Mongolian idiot. The three other children are apparently normal, their startled appear- 

 ance is due to being photographed by flashlight. 



fectious diseases or other causes, such 

 as emotional strain, exposure to indus- 

 trialism, and so forth. 



Since Mongolian idiots are invariably 

 alike, it is to be deduced that a uniform 

 type of disturbance is responsible for 

 them. And, since we know that such 

 an offspring is borne most frequently 

 by women suffering from endocrine 

 disturbance common to the pre-meno- 

 pause state, we may safely conclude 

 that the misbirth in this case (Figure 

 1), was not directly due to any of the 

 intrinsic toxins of the influenza from 



which the mother had suffered, but that 

 its causation was of secondary nature. 

 That is to say, that the peculiar type of 

 abnormality of the child may be ac- 

 cepted as convincing evidence of a con- 

 dition in the mother analogous to the 

 endocrine disturbance in the women 

 who are most frequently the mothers 

 of this type of child. 



Effect of Environment on Type of 

 Children 



Going back to Case No. 1, it is im- 

 portant to note that, in my own clinic 



