Phenomena of Inheritance 7 1 



There is no longer any question that some kinds of feeble-mind- 

 edness, epilepsy and insanity are inherited, and that there is often 

 an hereditary basis for nervous and phlegmatic temperaments, for 

 emotional, judicial and calculating dispositions. Nor can it be 

 denied that strength or weakness of will, a tendency to moral 

 obliquity or rectitude, capacity or incapacity for the highest in- 

 tellectual pursuits, occur frequently in certain families and ap- 

 pear to be inherited. In spite of certain noteworthy exceptions, 

 which may perhaps be due to remarkable variations, statistics col- 

 lected by Galton show that genius runs in certain families ; while 

 the work of some recent investigators, particularly Goddard, 

 Davenport and Weeks, proves that f eeble-mindedness and epilepsy 

 are also inherited; and the careful work of Mott and of Rosanoff 

 leaves no room for doubt that certain types of insanity are heredi- 

 tary. It frequently happens that families in which hereditary 

 insanity occurs also have other members afflicted with epilepsy, 

 hysteria, alcoholism, etc., which would indicate that the thing 

 inherited is an unstable condition of the nervous system which 

 may take various forms under. slightly different conditions. In- 

 deed there is a good deal of evidence that extraordinary ability, 

 or genius is frequently associated with an unstable nervous organi- 

 zation which may sometimes take the form of insanity or epilepsy 

 or alcoholism. There is perhaps more truth than poetry in 

 Dryden's lines : 



"Great wits are sure to madness near allied, 

 And thin partitions do their bounds divide." 



Woods has collected data concerning "Heredity in Royalty" 

 which seem to show that very high or low grades of intellect and 

 morality may be traced through the royal families of Europe for 

 several generations. 



The general tendency of recent work on heredity is unmistak- 

 able, whether it concerns man or lower animals. The entire or- 

 ganism, consisting of structures and functions, body and mind, 



