24 Eugenics Record Office, Bui.i.etin No. 4 



the hypothesis that, apart possibly from traumatic causes, epilepsy 

 rarely, if ever, arises from strains devoid of defective germ plasm. 



Does epilepsy ever arise in a stock devoid of neuropathic 

 taint? It is generally held that epilepsy is a "complex"; that its 

 causes are varied ; that its forms are diverse. The most progres- 

 sive students of epilepsy might even maintain that there is just 

 as much difference between one form of "epilepsy " and another 

 as between "cancer" and a boil. However useful such an 

 analysis may be for some purposes it appears that for the ques- 

 tion of inheritance of the great majority of cases that get into an 

 institution it has little importance. The various common types 

 of epilepsy behave as though they were alike in lacking some ele- 

 ment necessary for complete mental development ; and they behave 

 alike when mated with normal individuals with defect "in the 

 blood." A "defective" protoplasm (of whatever origin and how- 

 ever it is to be interpreted) acts like the absence of something, 

 and the various forms of defect are, within limits, mutually replace- 

 able. For practical purposes a " neuropathic taint " may be rec- 

 ognized as though it were an inheritable unit. 



But how about traumatic epilepsy ? Is that inherited like other 

 forms? More recent experiments have not confirmed the results 

 of Brown-Sequard who asserted the inheritance of acquired epi- 

 lepsy in guinea pigs. Do our pedigrees reveal any case of non- 

 inheritable epilepsy or other evidence that epilepsy may occur in 

 a stock devoid of neuropathic taint? We can only say that, in 

 the limited material at our disposal, there is no epileptic parent 

 that transmits like a normal ; and only one case of an epileptic child 

 from a family (of significant size) that shows no evidence of a 

 neuropathic taint. This does not question the fact of traumatic 

 epilepsy. It merely indicates its relative infrequency. 



Finally, the social bearing of the facts of inheritance of epi- 

 lepsy must be considered. 



First. Is there evidence that alcoholism is a cause of epilepsy 

 and other defectiveness? There is no doubt about its association 

 with defectiveness ; the doubt is whether alcoholism may not be a 

 symptom — evidence of such a mental weakness as cannot resist 

 the temptation of alcohol. A criterion may be found in the out- 

 come of such matings as we have tabulated. If alcoholism is 

 merely a symptom like chorea and if it is evidence of a simplex 

 mental condition, then results of matings should show, undis- 



