2 5 



menstrual periods, child-bearing, and the cessation of the period of repro- 

 duction, the climacterium. 



I would also add as an important and perhaps the only cause in many 

 instances the enforced suppression by modern social conditions of the repro- 

 ductive functions and the maternal instincts in women of an emotional 

 temperament and mental instability. 



Anticipation or Antedating. 



Dr. Maudsley has observed that Nature tends to mend or end a de- 

 generate stock/C Now, how could Nature best end or mend a degenerate 

 stock? Obviously by segregating in a relatively few germs all the unsound 

 elements, leaving the others as it were free. The accompanying figure 15 

 helps to explain this theory. 



Assuming the intensity of inheritance is constant for each chromosome or 

 other unit of germ-plasm, but to vary with the number of the germinal 

 units tainted, we have as a result of the mating of these two tainted stocks 

 all degrees of manifestation of ancestral characters from perfect normality 

 to the most profound disease. /CThe more numerous the tainted germinal 

 units the greater will be the chance of the disease appearing in the offspring.^ 

 On the other hand, the oftener reduction, with its possible random arrange- 

 ment, has occurred i.e., the greater the number of generations the less 

 will be the chance of any particular character finding a place in the inheri- 

 tance (Nettleship). 



A M&1< Parent 8. Fern* It &Tnt 



C. Son,. ..ltt .1 ft X 6 



* * ChTO "'" t "" d * h 



} 3 ( QAA 00oa ) 



wAMUU 



fifi 



Fig. 15 



A represents the male parent ; his immature germ-cells have derived their chromosomes, 

 germinal determinants or representative particles (Galton) from his father and mother, and 

 they are respectively represented b) different figures. The eight germ-mature chromosomes 

 are reduced to four during maturation, two from each parent ; the figures a-f indicate the 

 combination of two maternal with two paternal, all diseased, but in different degrees and 

 modes. B represents the female parent, in which there is an inherited taint, but only to a 

 slight degree, coming from the maternal side ; in the mature germ-cells only one containing 

 number 13 will be tainted. C shows some of the results which may arise from the 

 conjugation of A X B. 



Certainly this idea of the scheme explains certain facts which have been 

 observed in the pedigrees I have shown ; it shows why the offspring of 



