236 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



Greek Church within his reahn, can be truly regarded as bigoted. 

 Neither can we think that an Emperor who transfers the censor- 

 ship of books from the clergy to laymen of Uberal sympathies 

 can be regarded as a bigot. We are inchned to think this epithet 

 is accidentally misplaced. Thus the descendants of Charles V. 

 of Lorraine (great-grandfather of Joseph II. along the father's 

 Une) manifested no decided rehgious bent until it was introduced 

 through the Empress Maria Theresa, from her mother and grand- 

 mother. 



There are those who believe that indolence, viciousness, 

 licentiousness, dissoluteness, inferior capacities, stupidity, im- 

 becility, and insanity are the products of the environment, and 

 are begotten in the slums of cities or engendered in the stress of 

 hfe. To them we commend a careful study of the " Chart of 

 Modern Spain," which faces page 154 of Dr. Adams Wood's book. 

 This chart deals solely with the descent of royal personages, to 

 whom were accessible all the charms that render Hfe smooth, 

 whose wishes were commands satisfied in the moment of 

 their utterance, to whom all activities were open and the 

 means of participating in them were freely forthcoming. Yet, 

 living under the best conditions that the civihsation of their time 

 knew, the Royal Stock inscribed upon this chart contained 

 individuals manifesting the undesirable quahties we have just 

 enumerated. It may be contended, as we are afraid it has often 

 been by people who are content with unsupported assertions 

 that carry comfort to their own preconceived ideas of the nature 

 of things, that licentiousness and imbeciUty are equally the pro- 

 duct of a Eoyal Court and the slums. That such a contention 

 has no vahdity, notwithstanding its wide acceptance, is clearly 

 shown by the fact that in the Royal family which contains violent, 

 passionate, licentious, and feeble-minded members, there are 

 others who are normal, virtuous, amiable, and wise. But what 

 this chart does show, is that once degenerative characters are 

 introduced into a hne of descent, and individuals of degenerate 

 families are married to each other, they may be perpetuated 

 through succeeding generations. In this chart, for instance, 

 they pass down through six generations, and would continue to 

 pass on indefinitely, so long as the mode of selection of the worst 

 individuals, and the inbreeding which the chart shows to have 

 occurred, are continued. Historians and others have been too 

 apt to assert that inbreeding which is more common in Royal 

 families than in others, leads to sterility and the termination of 

 the stock. But, as Dr. Adams Wood points out, there is not 

 only no indication of it in this case, but on the contrary, nearly 

 every marriage was prohfic of children, even amongst the closest 

 blood relations. 



