140 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



it appears in the male as fourteen, and in the female 

 eleven years. 



According to the Registrar-General's returns the 

 average number of deaths annually registered as due 

 to epilepsy during the past ten years has been consider- 

 ably over 2500. These figures, however, can give no 

 idea of the prevalence of the disease among the popula- 

 tion, for it is a very small proportion of those who have 

 been epileptic whose deaths are directly due to that 

 disease, and fewer still which are registered as being 

 so. Not a few epileptics come to their death by vio- 

 lence, either accidental or suicidal, to which they are 

 more liable than any other class of the community, 

 and it is well known that a vast number of epileptics 

 annually succumb to such degenerative diseases as 

 phthisis. Besides, how many of the enormous num- 

 ber (2O,OOO to 25,000) of deaths annually registered 

 under the head " Convulsions " are due to inherited 

 epilepsy it is impossible to say; that a very great 

 number are is absolutely certain. Perhaps if we were 

 to assign to inherited epileptic taint a half of these 

 so-called deaths from convulsions, and say that about 

 12,000 deaths are annually due to this disease, we 

 should be well within the mark. And of these 12,000, 

 the majority would be those of tender years, whom 

 inheritance of a neurotic temperament had doomed 

 to an early death. The amount of infantile suffering 

 represented by these figures can only be surmised. 



And now arises the question of marriage. One 

 thing is certain, and that is, " epileptics decidedly ought 



