272 



THE ABNORMAL MAN. 



A Tangled 

 Skein. 



Number of 

 Idiotic and 

 Epileptic. 



simply desire to emphasize the fact that these 

 forces, as applied, have proved insufficient to 

 counteract evil inborn tendencies. 



In considering the influence of the great social 

 evils upon the heredity of offspring I shall pur- 

 posely avoid the needless recital of statistics, giv- 

 ing only such as are necessary to indicate the 

 potency of bad prenatal conditions in the produc- 

 tion of the dependent and delinquent classes. It 

 is difficult to estimate the actual or relative influ- 

 ence of any special one of the great social evils. 

 They are all so interwoven and interdependent 

 that no one can be separated from the others and 

 studied as an isolated factor; moreover, each is a 

 cause and in turn becomes an effect; therefore, 

 the best we can do is to attribute to each only 

 such influences as are warranted by a conserva- 

 tive estimate of results. 



In this chapter we shall notice the relation of 

 heredity to imbecility and insanity, and more par- 

 ticularly the effects of narcotics and poisonous 

 drugs used by mothers during gestation. It is 

 estimated that there are at present no less than 

 150,000 feeble-minded persons in the United 

 States (over 100,000 of these are under school 

 age) ; also about the same number of epileptics, 

 or 300,000 in all. Comparative statistics indicate 

 that these unfortunate classes are rapidly on the 

 increase in proportion to the population. Only 

 10 per cent of these dependents are found in the 

 state institutions: the rest are cared for at home 

 or in private hospitals, and are usually given as 

 little publicity as possible. Many parents are 



