46 



HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



portion of the descendants of this woman became 

 licentious, in the course of six generations 52.40 

 per cent, of the females being harlots and 23.50 per 

 cent, of the children illegitimate ; that there were 

 7.50 times more paupers among the women than 

 among the average women of the State, and nine 

 times more paupers among the male descendants 

 than among the average men of the State, while 

 of the sick among them 56.47 were paupers. 

 Of seven hundred cases examined, two hundred 

 and eighty became pauperized adults ; and this 

 study covered but about one-third of the family. 

 Moreover, of these seven hundred only twenty- 

 two had acquired property, and eight of those 

 had lost what they had gained. Seventy-six 

 are known to have been convicted of crimes 

 and punished, while it is scarcely to be doubted 

 that more than double that number were really 

 criminals. The diseases from which they suffered 

 were among the most terrible and debasing known 

 to the medical profession ; in other words, the 

 unmistakable wages of sin.^ It is possible that 

 this is an exceptional case, but it is more than 



^ The result of the investigations of Mr. Dugdale have been 

 before the pubhc for several years. They are repeated here in the 

 hope that they may possibly reach some readers who may not be 

 acquainted with his almost startling little book. 



