8-8 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



inverse order of their ancestral age — that is to say, of their 

 evolution. 



This truth is particularly well shown under the disturbing 

 influences of disease. It is further exemplified in the gradual 

 dissolution of old age. 



lb. Characters acquired by the individual himself tend, under 

 disturbing influences, to disappear in the inverse order of their 

 acquisition. 



This truth also is well exemplified in disease and old age. 



II. The tendency of parental characters not to appear in the 

 offspring is in inverse proportion to their ancestral age. 



Let us now consider each of these propositions separately. 



la. The instability of characters which are of recent ancestral 

 date is well known to all biologists, and examples of it abound 

 in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The tendency of the 

 moral nature to disappear before the other parts of the mind, 

 under the disturbing influence of disease, or even of excite- 

 ment, affords a familiar example of its truth. The advent 

 of insanity, for instance, is generally heralded by an upset of 

 the moral faculty ; in other words, that mental ingredient 

 which was last acquired is the first to go, the other parts of the 

 mental organism being successively disorganized as the morbid 

 process deepens. We have only to look around to have most 

 painfully impressed upon us how slack is the hold of morality 

 upon the multitude under certain disturbing influences. Let 

 us take, for instance, the recent execution of the criminal, 

 Pranzini, in Paris. The following I give from memory, but it 

 fairly tallies with the description I read of it : — 



"For several nights before the execution a huge multitude col- 

 lected about the prison in the greedy expectation of seeing him 

 guillotined. All classes of society were there, from the wealthy 

 in their chariots to the most degraded portion of the populace. 

 On these nights the crowd amused itself by singing filthy 

 songs, having for their theme the poor wretch who was about 

 to be hurried into eternity. At last the fatal night arrived, and 

 in the first hours of the morning the victim was aroused from 

 a deep sleep, and led pinioned through the gloating and 

 screaming throng to his place of execution. When the knife 

 had severed the head, the blood gushed out, staining the 



