282 



THE ABNORMAL MAN. 



A Family 

 Mania. 



reason of my committing this act may perhaps 

 seem incomprehensible, but I suppose it is chiefly 

 that my morbid desire for death from my child- 

 hood has grown too strong for me. It may be 

 madness, but I fear not" 



Griesinger, one of the greatest of German 

 alienists, says : "Experience has shown that the 

 inclination to suicide, which often comes on in 

 all members of a family at the same age, com- 

 municates itself by hereditary descent." Bur- 

 rows, among many cases, gives the following: 

 "A man hanged himself. He left four sons. Of 

 these one hanged himself, one cut his throat, one 

 drowned himself and one died a natural death. 

 Two of these sons had families; of one family 

 two became insane and another made several at- 

 tempts to take his life. Of the other, two mem- 

 bers drowned themselves, though never suspect- 

 ed of insanity." 



Esquirol tells of a family in which the grand- 

 mother, mother, daughter and grandson all com- 

 mitted suicide. McCulloch in studying the fam- 

 ily of Ben Ishmael, discovered and identified 

 1,750 descendants living in Kentucky in 1790, 

 who had been criminals and paupers, among 

 ,whom were 121 prostitutes. In six generations 

 75 per cent of the cases treated in the city hos- 

 pitals of Indianapolis were of this man's off- 

 spring. 



Prof. Pelman, of Bonn University, has discov- 

 ered and identified 709 descendants of Frau Ada 

 FrauAdaJurke. Jurke, a notorious drunkard who was born in 

 1740 and died in 1800. Of these 7 had been 

 convicted of murder, 76 of other crimes, 144 were 



The Ishmael 

 Family. 



Dependents of 



