86 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



had four sons, each of whom on attaining thirty-eight to 

 forty years of age became insane. These four men must 

 be kept for the remainder of their lives at the public 

 expense. But that is not the worst. Three of these men 

 married, and before they had become sufficiently insane 

 to be relegated to an asylum had become the fathers of 

 thirty-four children. Nature fought against this pro- 

 pagation of the unfit, and permitted only thirteen of 

 the thirty-four to reach maturity. One of these has 

 since dropped dead leaving no issue, but twelve are 

 still left as a legacy to the coming generation of rate- 

 payers. Men like these, or those others who also form 

 a large class, who beget families in the intervals between 

 attacks of mania, melancholia, or epileptic excitement, 

 must increase the insane population, and the system 

 which permits such propagation must not be surprised 

 when it is called upon to build new asylums or add 

 block after block to the old. 



Or, again, take the case of a woman cursed with a 

 bad inheritance ; she marries, becomes pregnant, and, 

 unable to bear the strain thus thrown upon the system, 

 her mind gives way and for a time she becomes an 

 inmate of some asylum. In the majority of cases she 

 too recovers for a time, and goes out into the world to 

 bring forth perhaps a large family loaded with a double 

 allowance of original sin. Every asylum medical officer 

 is only too familiar with such cases. I can call to memory 

 a score such at the present time, women who return to 

 the asylum time after time, each visit in many cases fol- 

 lowing or preceding the birth of an unfortunate child. 



