8o MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



the hereditary transmission of phthisis, but for the 

 present we shall not comment on the above. 



In insanity this "heredity at corresponding ages" 

 is frequently met with, a.s it is also in cancer, gout, 

 and rheumatism. A case in point comes to my mind. 

 It is this : A father (of whom I could get but little 

 information) was addicted to drink, and became insane 

 at about forty years of age. He had four sons. The 

 eldest became insane at the age of forty -one, the 

 second at the same age also became insane, while 

 the third and fourth sons were in turn certified in- 

 sane on reaching the age of thirty-eight. They were 

 all, like the father, given to habits of intemperance, 

 and not one of them ever showed any sign of mental 

 improvement after the first mental failure. Each 

 sank from bad to worse, and soon arrived at hopeless 

 dementia. The eldest of these brothers is at present 

 a murderer in Broadmoor criminal asylum, and the 

 otber three are, as I have said, hopeless dements in a 

 county asylum. 



And now, having considered the courses generally 

 followed by Nature in the transmission of hereditary 

 characters, we will glance at a few of the more grave 

 pathological characters commonly transmitted, and 

 consider what advice should be offered persons beariug 

 such taint when the question of marriage arises. 



