466 READINGS IN EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 



manifest itself until past middle life, when they have already married 

 and started a family. Moreover, those hybrid individuals in whom 

 the insane tendency is present alongside of the normal determiner 

 appear as normal individuals, Frequently they can be detected only 

 by an examination of the pedigree. If such individuals mate, one- 

 fourth of the offspring would be expected to be insane. 



Early modern European history centers about the doings of a 

 few great men and women. Peter the Great of Russia, Ferdinand and 

 Isabella and Charles V of Spain, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Gusta- 

 vus Adolphus and Charles XII of Sweden, are among the most brilliant 

 of these potent individuals that shaped the destinies of Europe during 

 this period. It is interesting to note how their characters are deter- 

 mined (and through them national destinies are apparently decided 

 in no small measure) by the hereditary concentration of ability due 

 to lucky royal matings, and how their genius is dissipated by unwise 

 matings. 



Peter the Great of Russia came as a brilliant type from a good 

 stock, though with a very evident taint of epilepsy and feeble- 

 mindedness. He himself was an epileptic. His father, grandfather, 

 and great-grandfather had been men of large ability. They had married 

 peasant girls, as was the custom of the czars. Peter's own brothers 

 and sisters were in no way remarkable. His half-sister Sophia was a 

 woman of marked abihty, although two of her brothers were imbeciles, 

 one also an epileptic. As will be seen from the pedigree, the epilepsy, 

 imbecility, and mediocrity appear in both Peter's children and grand- 

 children, as well as in those of his imbecile half-brother, Ivan. It is 

 interesting to note from the pedigree that the feeble-mindedness and 

 epilepsy seem to cling to the males quite persistently. The females 

 of the family are much more apt to be brilliant and virtuous. Peter 

 the Great's own son Alexis was a poor dissolute specimen, and although 

 he married Charlotte, the angelic daughter of a great Une, the house 

 of Brunswick, the son of this mating was Peter II, of unstable mind, 

 while the daughter Natalia was as sweet as she was energetic. 



Isabella and Ferdinand were both descendants from lines of very 

 great individuals, although in each case there is insanity in the family. 

 Isabella herself comes from an insane mother and an imbecile father, 

 but her grandparents and great-grandparents were well-balanced and 

 able. The data for the charts of these royal families were taken 

 largely from F. A. Woods's Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty, 

 supplemented with information from other sources. He grades the 



