INSANITY 283 



mistakable victim of insanity. The authors frankly admit 

 that " of the four hundred and thirty-seven persons classed 

 by them as neuropathic, only one hundred and fifteen, or 26.3 

 per cent, presented at any time in their lives indications for 

 commitment to sanitariums or hospitals for the insane." 

 Three-fourths, therefore, of their persons insane for pedigree 

 purposes would be classed as fully normal, if they occurred in 

 families free from insane hospital patients. Such classifica- 

 tion has little scientific value. 



In dealing with the pedigrees the authors class as neuro- 

 pathic persons whose only offence, aside from having an in- 

 sane relative, are the following: " Crank "; " easily excited, 

 nerv^ous temperament " ; " very nervous " ; " erratic, excit- 

 able "; " nervous, little things bothered her, worried a great 

 deal "; but in one case, which goes beyond all others, the 

 individual is classed as insane on the following grounds: 

 *' money mad, very cruel, very miserly though wealthy, left 

 much of his money to his housekeeper." To the layman this 

 does not read like the characterization of an insane person; 

 change the word housekeeper to hospital and it might de- 

 scribe a philanthropist and captain of industry. 



It seems that, in the light of this investigation, if critically 

 viewed, and in the light of Heron's investigation, very doubt- 

 ful whether insanity in general is inherited as a Mendelian 

 unit-character. Very likely there are different varieties of 

 insanity independently inherited. That insanity is inherited, 

 however, there can be no doubt. Heron quotes Pearson's 

 family records as including seventeen cases in which one or 

 both parents were insane. In only one case were all members 

 of the family who attained the age of fifty or over free from 

 insanity. \ATien both parents were insane, Pearson's records 

 give 66 per cent of insane offspring; when only one parent 

 was insane, forty per cent of the offspring were insane, where- 

 as in the general population only 1 or 2 per cent are insane. 

 Hence with insanity in one or both parents, the percent- 

 age of insane progeny increases; on this all investigators 

 agree. 



