302 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



Asthma is very closely allied to the gouty and the 

 rheumatic diatheses, and not a few asthmatics inherit 

 gout, chronic rheumatism, or heart disease, as well as 

 the spasmodic affection. On the other hand, in gouty 

 families it is a common occurrence for the daughters, 

 who are not gouty, to be asthmatic, and for these 

 to transmit gout, scrofula, or rheumatism to their 

 offspring. 



Asthma is also very closely related to the neurotic 

 or insane diathesis, the disease being very common 

 in families in which insanity, idiocy, infantile convul- 

 sions, chorea, and other nervous affections are to be 

 found. In this connection it may be noticed that the 

 father of the wretched family of suicides, epileptics, 

 and lunatics, whose genealogical tree was given at 

 page 1 8, died of asthma. 



Asthmatics are themselves nervous and irritable, 

 and generally of the melancholic temperament, as are, 

 also, their relatives and children, among whom (as in 

 the above-mentioned family) suicides are frequent. 



Here is the genealogical tree of another family of 

 an asthmatic father, one of whose children was a patient 

 of mine : 



