CHAPTER VIII. 



MARRIAGE AND INSANITY. 



" If we are seriously minded to check the increase or lessen the 

 production of insanity, it would be necessary to begin further back, 

 and to lay down rules to prevent the propagation of a disease which 

 is one of the most hereditary of diseases." MAUDSLEY.* 



THIS is a subject upon which, it is difficult to speak, 

 knowing, as we do, that every word spoken must 

 crush the fondest hope of some unfortunate fellow- 

 creature. However, a duty should not be shirked 

 simply because it is unpleasant. Too long has senti- 

 ment been allowed to rule our better judgment in 

 this matter, with what result we see, and the sooner 

 we break new ground the better. Discussion must 

 cause pain to many, but silence on the subject would 

 be even more cruel; for, as it has been in the past 

 it would be in the future, the cause of much suffer- 

 ing, sin, and death, which otherwise might never 

 appear on the face of the earth. 



First, then, I would advise that every person who 



knows the family to which he belongs to have the 



bar-sinister of insanity upon its escutcheon, before 



daring to put himself, or herself, in the way of 



* " Responsibility in Mental Disease," p. 275. 



