Mendel ism 27 1 



and had three children. Two of these are feeble-minded and 

 the other died in infancy. . . ,"* 



Not alone in her descendants, but also in her ancestry and 

 collateral relatives does this woman illustrate the influence 

 of defective germ plasm in a family. Of twenty-seven chil- 

 dren, one or both of whose parents were feeble-minded, twen- 

 ty-four showed the defect, the character of the other three 

 being unknown. 



The following eases cited by Davenport are further exam- 

 ples of the blight which defective inheritance so often casts 

 upon a human life. 



This case "is an eleven year old boy who began to steal at 

 3 years; at 4 set fire to a pantry resulting in an explosion 

 that caused his mother 's death ; and at 8 set fire to a mattress. 

 He is physically sound, able and well informed, polite, gen- 

 tlemanly and very smooth, but he is an inveterate thief and 

 has a court record. His older brother, 14, has been full of 

 deviltry, has stolen and set fires but is now settled down and 

 is earning a living. Their father is an unusually fine, 

 thoughtful intelligent man, a grocer, for a time sang on the 

 vaudeville stage ; his mother, who died at 32, is said to have 

 been a normal woman of excellent character. There is how- 

 ever a taint on both sides. The father's father was wild 

 and drank when young and had a brother w^ha was an in- 

 veterate thief. The mother's father was alcoholic and when 

 drunk mean and vicious. Some of the mother's brothers stole 

 or were sexually immoral, 



"A healthy man employed on a railroad as a fireman and 

 using neither alcohol nor tobacco married a woman who was 

 born in the mountains of West Virginia near the Kentucky 

 line and who shows many symptoms of defectiveness. She 

 has epileptic convulsions as often as two or three times a 

 week, has an ungovernable temper, smokes, chews and drinks, 

 is illiterate and sexually immoral. There are 10 children, of 

 whom something is known about seven. One died early of 

 chorea, one of the others seems normal ; one has killed two 

 men including a policeman; another had her husband killed 

 and lives with the slayer; one was an epileptic and cigarette 

 fiend, convicted of assault ; another has hysterical convulsions 

 and is afraid in sleep ; while still another has migraine. The 

 combination in the fraternity of migraine, chorea, hysteria, 

 epilepsy and sexual immorality and tendency to assault is 

 striking and appalling. 



"A 10 year old boy who was precocious as a raconteur at 

 22 months, does well at school except for inattention ; is fond 

 of reading and athletics, cheerful, and polite. But he prefers 

 * '"'American Breeders Magazine," Vol. I, pp. 176-8. 



