MARRIAGE AND INSANITY. 107 



looked upon as the result of fast living and dissipation 

 in the healthy indeed, in some of the most finely 

 developed men is, upon inquiry, turning out to be to 

 a large extent confined to families where other mental 

 and nervous diseases are common. In fifty-six cases 

 of general paralysis in males, of which I have taken 

 notes, I found a family history of insanity in no less 

 than eleven, or 19.6 per cent., notwithstanding that 

 in ten of the cases I could get no history whatever. 

 The father had been insane in two cases, the mother 

 in one, one or more sisters in four, a sister imbecile 

 in one, and in three other cases near relatives in the 

 direct line had been insane. Had I been able to 

 inquire into all of the fifty-six cases, I have no doubt 

 that the percentage showing hereditary taint would 

 have been markedly higher. 



In estimating the importance or gravity of the 

 hereditary taint in any given case, several points are 

 to be considered, as whether the insanity h,as " run 

 in the family " for some generations, or has appeared 

 recently ; whether the parent had been actually insane 

 before he became a parent; whether one or both 

 parents were tainted; the number of relatives in the 

 direct line who have shown the neurotic temperament, 

 and whether the disease attacks one sex only, as is 

 sometimes the case, or appears equally frequently in 

 both. From what has been said in the preceding 

 pages, it should be clear, that the insanity of one 

 parent would indicate a less degree of predisposition 

 than that of a parent and a grandparent, for with each 



