I 3 8 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



were probably the last of a degenerate race. Of the 

 ten, seven died in childhood of convulsions, two were 

 epileptic, and the remaining one was an impotent 

 imbecile. 



CASE II.* 



F. 



A suicide. 



Insane. 



-F. F. 



Insane. Epileptic. 



K. 



Insane. 



I 



Excitable. DulL Epileptic imbecile. 



Here, again, we are within measurable distance of, if 

 not actually arrived at, the close of the family's exist- 

 ence. Had the man, the son of the suicide, had the 

 good sense or good fortune to have married a woman 

 of sound family, instead of the sister of an epileptic, 

 who was to become insane herself later in life, it is 

 possible that reversion to the healthy type might have 

 taken place, at least in some of the children, and the 

 fate of the family been other than it was. 



From all these family histories it is evident that 

 epilepsy is symptomatic of a lower grade of degenera- 

 tion than that found in the ordinary insanities. It 

 most frequently makes its appearance in members of 

 families which have shown, or are showing, other 

 phases of degeneration, as idiocy, drunkenness, defor- 



* British Medical Journal, May 28, 1887. 



