120 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



was an epileptic, and either in consequence of this 

 or of her general unstable heredity, was a drunkard, 

 was unveracious to a degree, and was a thief. 

 At one time in her life she seems to have been 

 distinctly insane ; but she was not incarcerated, as 

 she soon " got all right again " — as people term it in 

 their ignorance of the fact that insanity is far more 

 than a mere matter of a transitory train of more or 

 less striking symptoms. At the age of thirty-six 

 years she developed ataxic paraplegia ; and when 

 forty-two years of age had an attack of pneumonia, 

 and after lingering on for over a month she died. 

 On her deathbed, in a practically furnitureless house 

 to which she had obtained entry by guile, and of 

 which she paid no rent, and deserted by her para- 

 mour, she took in as a lodger a young married 

 prostitute, who became a companion to her fifteen- 

 year-old daughter, the two becoming inseparables 

 except when temporarily estranged by violent out- 

 bursts of quarrelling. This woman had married a 

 drunken and immoral husband, and during her 

 married life had nine pregnancies. Her first child 

 Avas prematurely born, took fits in infancy, and soon 

 died. The next two pregnancies resulted in abor- 

 tions. Then came another prematurely-born infant, 

 which also developed fits and died. She then had 

 another abortion, and then came still another pre- 

 mature child, about which there is the same story 

 of convulsions leading on to a fatal issue. Then 

 came a daughter, born at full time, being subject 

 to attacks of laryngismus for years, and at the age 



