29 '. ' >-V. 



This tendency of certain diseases to occur at an earlier age in the off- 

 spring of diseased parents was termed by Darwin " antedating " or 

 "anticipation," and I have found, as the above statistics show, that 

 there is a singular tendency in the insane offspring of insane 

 parents for the insanity to occur at an earlier age and in a more intense 

 form, either as congenital imbecility or the primary dementia of adolescence, 

 an incurable disease; not that all the cases are of this nature, but a large 

 proportion of them. First let me call attention to certain facts regarding 

 the age at first attack in 508 pairs of parents and offspring. Some of the 

 parents had more than one insane offspring; there were only 464 parents. 

 You will observe that 47*8% of the 500 offspring had their first attack 

 at or before the age of 25 years, and as you see in the curves of parents 

 and offspring the liability to the child of an insane parent becoming insane 

 tends rapidly to fall. (Figs. 16 and 17.) Now, besides the fact that this shows 

 Nature's method of eliminating unsound elements of a stock, it has another 

 important bearing, for it shows that after 25 there is a greatly decreasing 

 liability of the offspring of insane parents" to become insane, and therefore 

 in the question of advising marriage of the offspring of an insane parent 

 is of great importance. Sir Geo. Savage recently said that this statistical 

 proof entirely accorded with his own experiences, and that if an individual 

 who had an hereditary history had passed 25 and never previously shown 

 any signs he would probably be free, and he would recommend marriage. 



Another important fact was elicited, viz., that in 58 8% of the 508 off- 

 spring of insane parents the first attack in the offspring occurred at an age 

 20 or more years earlier than in the parent. Similar tables and curves 

 (Figs. 1 8 and 19) compiled from 193 pairs of uncles or aunts and nephews 

 and nieces show the same fact but not to so marked a degree. 



As a leading article in a recent number of the British Medical 

 Journal refers to this question of anticipation tending to the ending or 

 mending of a degenerate stock being used as an argument against measures 

 being taken to prevent the propagation of the unfit, I particularly desire 

 to impress upon my audience the fact that I have always laid great stress 

 upon the necessity of segregating congenital imbeciles now that Nature, by 

 man's aid, does not kill them off as formerly. Moreover, it is highly desir- 

 able to follow up those members of the family who are sane, and par- 

 ticularly those who are discharged as cured, in order to see whether Nature 

 has really mended that degenerate stock. 



Recurrent Insanity and Propagation. 



One of the great arguments advanced for sterilization has been that 

 recurrent cases of insanity breed lunatics between their respective dates of 

 admissions to asylums. I have no doubt this is the case, but before Parlia- 

 ment would consider such a procedure it would require the strongest and 



