HEREDITY IN INSANITY. 93 



any great weight with them. Besides, they are backed 

 up in their resolves by their relatives, who are about 

 the worst counsellors they could have. Every one who 

 has had much to do with the insane and their rela- 

 tives has noticed the mental peculiarities so often 

 exhibited by the latter. Very frequently their minds 

 are crippled and deformed. They are obstinate, pas- 

 sionate, wilful and suspicious, the higher intelligence 

 being often replaced by a deep low cunning, while 

 the moral side of their nature is equally poorly de- 

 veloped. Weak themselves, and with such counsellors, 

 what can we expect ? 



I have seen a man, whose mother was an imbecile, 

 whose sister was an idiot, and who was little better 

 himself, come to visit his wife and wife's sister 

 whose mother had also been insane who were con- 

 fined as lunatics in the game asylum in which his 

 idiot sister resided, and I have watched this creature, 

 the father of three children ! laugh gleefully at the 

 antics of his relatives in the visiting-room. There 

 are thousands of such ill-developed men and women 

 in the country, creatures whom we cannot hope to 

 guide otherwise than by force. Education is all very 

 well in its place, and it must have a most beneficial 

 effect amongst those who have sufficient mental deve- 

 lopment to appreciate the evil under which their 

 families labour, and who have sufficient strength of 

 will to enable them to choose the good rather than the 

 evil. But with those like the man above mentioned 

 it is useless to plead, and only coercion will keep 



