TIIK J5RADSIIAW LECTQJiE 19 



and all the offspring were lunatics. The other is 

 the pedigree of a man subject to recurrent lunacy, 



who when out of the asvlum continued to increase 



j 



his family. Altogether he had eight children, five 

 of whom were confined in asylums (see pedigrees, 

 pp. 17 and 18). 



I do not suppose for a moment that in a 

 country such as this, where emotion plays so 

 prominent a part in politics, that any opera- 

 tive measures such as have been adopted in one 

 of the States of America would find favour. But 

 political ideas gradually change. The " liberty 

 of the individual " which was for a generation a 

 great party cry has passed into oblivion, and we 

 have in its place the political maxim that the 

 minority must yield in everything to the will of 

 the majority. This would therefore seem to be a 

 favourable time for medical men to press on the 

 Government measures for the protection of the 

 State against the gradual increase of lunacy, and 

 especially of criminal lunacy. 



In this relation I would remark that the 

 germinal organs (testes and ovaries) do not 

 actually belong to the individual, but to the next 

 generation. As soon as they have determined 

 his adult form they cease to be of service in his 

 economy; and at times prove of great incon- 



