CANCER. 187 



one at the age of sixteen, the other two later in life, 

 and after being married for many years ; neither left 

 any issue. 6. A son who is epileptic, and has twice 

 been confined in lunatic asylums ; married no issue ; 

 and 7. A son who is up till now sane, and enjoying 

 fair health. 



Here the taint in the mother appears to have been 

 slight, still it was there, and while certainly preventing 

 reversion, it doubtless deepened the degeneration of 

 the father in the children. In the father's stock the 

 taint was much deeper, and it is to be noticed that 

 while it was exhibited as cancer in him, it took the 

 form of suicidal impulse in his brother. In the 

 children of this pair we have the disease of the 

 father transmitted to the eldest son, but will any 

 one refuse to believe that the infantile convulsions, 

 the liability to tubercular disease, the epilepsy, the 

 insanity, and the marked sterility, were but the vary- 

 ing symptoms of the degenerate nature, inherited 

 from a father who might have died of some acute 

 disease at any age under sixty-six, taking the secret 

 of his nature with him, and leaving the origin of his 

 children's unfitness a mystery. 



Another and a very strong proof that the cancerous 

 diathesis is a family degeneration is to be found in 

 the fact that, when deeply marked, it is not unfre- 

 quently accompanied by sterility, just as are the 

 lower grades of the scrofulous, insane, and other 

 degenerate temperaments. On this ground would I 

 account for the fact that cancer so frequently attacks 



