ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 



sixteen children. Fifteen died young ; the only survivor was 

 epileptic. According to Darwin, the families of drunkards 

 become extinct in the fourth generation. According to 

 Marce", the degeneration is as follows : 



" I. Generation : Moral depravity, excessive indulgence in 



alcohol. 

 II. Drink mania, maniacal attacks, general 



III. Hypochondria, melancholia, taedium vitae, 



impulse to suicide. 



IV. Imbecility, idiocy, extinction of the family. 1 



" It is a wonderful fact, which is nevertheless established by 

 cases brought forward by Hemming, Euer, and Demeaux, 

 that even children of parents usually temperate, when their 

 generation has chanced to occur during an exceptional time 

 of intoxication, have in a high degree a tendency to mental 

 derangement and nervous diseases. This evil influence may 

 even show itself from birth as congenital weakness of intellect 

 or idiocy. 



" Griesinger draws attention to the fact that genius 2 some- 

 times occurs alongside of hereditary idiocy. Moreau even 

 went so far as to explain genius as a neurosis. That men of 

 genius not seldom (Schopenhauer's grandmother and uncle 

 were imbecile) have insane, psychically defective relations, 

 and produce children who are weak-minded or even idiotic, is 

 certain. It seems as if a higher internal organisation of the 

 nervous elements common to both, in one case, under the 



1 Cf. the valuable work of Taguet, Ueber die erblichen Folgen des A Ikoholismus, 

 Ann. Med. Psych. July 1877 ; Morel, Traite des Degtneresc. p. 116 ; Jung, Allg. 

 Zeitschr.f. Psych. 21, pp. 535, 626 ; Bar, Alkoholismus 1878, p. 360. 



2 Cf. Hagen, Ueber Verwandtschaft des Genie mil dem Irresein, Allg. Zeitschr. 

 f. Psych. 33, Hefts 5, 6 ; Maudsley, translated by Bohm, p. 309 ; Moreau, 

 Psychologie Morbide, 1859. 



