18 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



it is between this and the twentieth year that as 

 a rule the manifestations of insanity make their 

 appearance. Yet there are some individuals who 

 are still sane. Others have destroyed themselves 

 or have been confined in asylums, in order to 

 prevent self-destruction. This fact suggests a 

 segregation of the morbid diathesis from the 

 normal condition. But it is only right to add 

 that melancholia is said to be a trait of the whole 

 present family. What such a statement means is 

 difficult to precisely understand. Whether this melan- 

 cholia is to be regarded as a diluted form of the 

 insanity of the family, or whether it is a distinct 

 morbid diathesis of itself, or whether it is merely 

 the melancholy that is not infrequently associated 

 with phlegmatic temperaments leading a monotonous 

 life, or whether, in this particular case, it may not be 

 merely a neurotic boding, excited by a lonely country 

 life and a knowledge of the family history, it is 

 impossible to say. Many families have melancholic 

 members, but suicidal mania is not manifested by 

 them. The facts of the pedigree, I think, justify us 

 in believing that if a member of the family has passed 

 the twenty-fifth or thirtieth year of life without 

 showing any peculiarity of behaviour, he is a sane 

 member of that family. The existence of the in- 

 dividual. No. 6 in the P generation, who did not 

 shoot himself until he reached fifty years of age, does 

 not invalidate this statement, for, as is known, he was 

 " cranky throughout his manhood." 



