TRANSMISSION OF CHARACTERISTICS 97 



of which was long ago remarked by Voltaire. The 

 verdict of " temporary insanity," so often returned by 

 coroners' juries, is generally looked upon as a euphem- 

 ism for self-murder or felo de se, but there is reason 

 to believe that in many cases it is strictly correct, 

 even where the suicide has carried out his purpose 

 with the utmost deliberation. Voltaire notes the case 

 of a man of a serious profession, of mature age, regular 

 in his conduct, sober in his passions, and well-to-do, 

 who committed suicide, leaving a written declaration 

 to the effect that his death was voluntary. " Strange 

 to say " — we now quote from the Dictionnaire Fhilo- 

 sophique — "it was found that his brother and his 

 father had killed themselves at the same age as he." 

 The writer would not have been astonished had he 

 known as much of suicide as a modern mad doctor. 

 Since Voltaire's time hundreds of such cases have 

 been placed upon record. In fact, they are one of the 

 commonplaces of medical science. Not only a tend- 

 ency to suicide, but a recurrence of the act in families 

 at a particular age, and even in a particular manner, 

 is frequently noted.^ Hallucinations follow the same 



1 One recorded case will serve as an example of many. ' ' Un 

 monomaniaque se donne la mort ^ trente aus. Son fils arrive a peine 

 ^ trente ans qu'il est atteint de monomanie et fait deux tentativea 



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