MARRIAGE AND INSANITY. 113 



torn from the family circle a raving maniac, a tortured 

 epileptic, a drunken criminal, or, happily, a suicide. 

 Then arise sad regrets, but it is too late ; the laws of 

 Nature have been ignored, gratification has been pur- 

 chased, and the price must be paid. The sins of the 

 fathers shall be visited upon the children. 



As to who should marry, it is clear that every case 

 must be considered on its merits, and all cases in which 

 there is even a suspicion of gravity should be sub- 

 mitted to the family physician, or some one specially 

 learned in this class of disease. Happily it is not 

 incumbent on the physician to advise celibacy in 

 every case in which a member of a tainted family 

 appeals to him, although unfortunately it is over the 

 marriage of very few such he can pronounce the 

 benediction of science. In the case of men there 

 cannot be a doubt that in some cases the regularity 

 and comfort of a happy married life would .be of 

 much benefit, and greatly reduce the liability to an 

 outbreak of insanity, or to a relapse in one who had 

 already been insane ; but at best marriage partakes 

 so much of the character of a lottery, that, unfor- 

 tunately, it is impossible to say with any certainty 

 whether it will in any given case prove happy or the 

 reverse. Besides, it must be remembered that a man 

 of insane temperament does not make the most patient 

 and long-suffering of husbands, too often proving to 

 be, like the sage, " gie ill to live wi'." However, if the 

 taint be not too deeply marked, and more especially 

 if the risk of progeny be not run, marriage with a 



