INTRODUCTION. 31 



insane asylums have other members of their fam- 

 ily who are insane." Ribot says, "Every work 

 on insanity is a plea for heredity." 



According to Maudsley, "More than one-fourth 

 and less tharLone-half of all insanity is heredi- 

 TaryT 7 ^ In 73 cases given by Trelat 43 are rep- 

 resented as due to heredity. A report made to 

 the French government shows that of 1,000 in- 

 sane persons of each sex admitted to the asylum 

 264 males and 266 females had inherited insan- 

 ity. Carefully compiled and compared statistics 

 from all parts of the United States indicate that 

 about 45 per cent of our insane, 70 per cent of 

 our criminals, 75 per -cent of our prostitutes, 80 

 per cent of the feeble-minded, and 95 per cent 

 of the epileptics were born from drunken, neurotic 

 or criminal stock or were the product of bad 

 maternal impressions, about one-third being due 

 to this latter cause. 



Heredity has been studied and its laws applied 

 to the improvement of plant and animal life for 

 centuries. Flowers, fruits and vegetables 

 been doubled in size, quantity, quality and variety Animal Life. 

 within the last century. Domestic animals of 

 all kinds have been enlarged and improved in 

 shape and quality. The bovine of the plain has 

 lost his crooked back and crooked limb to be- 

 come a thing of beauty. The wild boar with 

 his hump back, long snout and savage nature has 

 been replaced by the good natured grunter of 

 the barnyard, or the performing pig of the cir- 

 cus. Nor is this improvement in the animal lim- 

 ited to form and size, to quality and appearance; 

 it is quite as marked in brain development and 



