INSANITY AND ALCOHOLISM. 73 



With a certain amount of sacrifice, humanity by 

 selection might free itself from those types who are a 

 drag upon the resources of the community, and who 

 suffer themselves, certainly in the melancholic cases, 

 to a degree which it is impossible for an ordinary 

 individual to experience. 



Marriages of Insane Persons. 



While there has so far been no organised effort to 

 bring about this selection, for we have not yet turned 

 our attention with sufficient interest to the race as a 

 whole, yet there is a popular and widespread feeling 

 against the marriage of those with a distinct family 

 history of insanity. This feeling has had in the past 

 an undoubtedly selective influence, and has in some 

 measure diminished the number of marriages with 

 neurotic families ; and the strengthening of this feel- 

 ing in the future is the only thing we have to look to, 

 as matters stand, as a means whereby the race may 

 free itself from an inherent weakness of a most 

 distressing kind. 



Alcoholism a Habit, and Alcoholism a Sign of Mental 

 Instability. 



Not unfrequently we hear of the hereditary tendency 

 to alcoholism, and it is generally understood that a 

 specific tendency to drink alcohol is transmitted. To 



