64 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



duction of mental defect as the researches of Eraser and Watson 

 indicate, it would necessitate considerable modification of the 

 views that have been expressed regarding the so-called Mendelian 

 transmission of epilepsy and feeble-mindedness. Very many of 

 the charts picturing such inheritance are quite consistent with 

 the h}^othesis that we are dealing with the transmission of an 

 infection which produces effects of various degrees of severity. 

 Where both parents are infected we should expect that the chil- 

 dren would be severely afflicted. The matings of normal and 

 defective, however, do not turn out quite as we should expect on 

 the theory of infection. It is highly desirable that future studies 

 of the inheritance of mental defect may make use of thorough 

 tests to eliminate the possibly very large factor of s}^hilis. This 

 has not been done in any of the work pubhshed by the Eugenics 

 Record Office, and it remains to be seen what basis will be left for 

 the various laws that have been laid down for the inheritance of 

 mental defect when this precaution has been taken. 



THE NOTION OF DEGENERACY 



Since Morel published his celebrated treatise on Degeneracy in 

 1857, it has been a prevalent idea that many forms of defect and 

 disorder are not transmitted as such, but may give place in the 

 descendants to abnormalities of the most varied kind. What is 

 transmitted is held to be a degenerate constitution which may be 

 manifested in diverse ways according to circumstances. '^ He- 

 redity," says ]\Iorel, "does not mean the very disorders of the 

 parents transmitted to the children with the identical mental and 

 physical symptoms observed in the progenitors. It means trans- 

 mission of organic dispositions from parents to children. Alien- 

 ists have, perhaps, more frequent occasion than others for ob- 

 serving not merely this heredity transmission, but likewise 

 various transformations which occur in the descendants. They 

 are aware that simple neuropathy (nervous tendency) of the 

 parents may produce in the children an organic disposition result- 

 ing in mania or melancholia, nervous affections which in turn may 



