l6 NATURE AND NURTURE 



can be traced, twenty were already, on going to school at 

 seven, found to be of feeble sight, several were operated on 

 before twelve years of age, and some lost the sight of one 

 or both eyes. From that one case we find tw^o, four, 

 thirteen, twenty bhnd or semi-blind individuals in four 

 successive generations. Forty defective individuals in 

 a stock still multiplying, which nature, left to herself, 

 would have cut off at its very inception ! But civilized 

 man provided an environment wherein they could survive, 

 marry, and multiply. In the last generation the nine 

 families of which we have records are still incomplete, and 

 yet they average five children apiece — a number much 

 above the average incomplete family of the healthy 

 and fit population. See Plate I, Fig. i. 



But congenital cataract was associated in this case 

 with fairly good physique ; it not infrequently occurs 

 associated with other degeneracies. My second pedigree ^ 

 shows you a history of mental disease : — 



Ancestry of mental disease, consanguinity, with 

 physical defect in fourth generation, and cataract of 

 form not stated. I. i, male, died mad ; I. 2, his brother, 

 had religious mania ; I. i had two female children, one 

 normal, the other died of a nervous disease, these produce 

 the parents of the third generation. II. i-8, a sibship of 

 eight, of whom two males were epileptic, two females 

 hysterical, two females tubercular, one female a religious 

 maniac, and one male described as idiotic ; he marries the 

 normal daughter, II. 9, of I. i and has several defective 

 children. II. 10, the other daughter of I. i bears to 



II. II, an ' eccentric ' man, three children, of whom some 

 are defective ; she then dies of some nervous disease. 



III. 1-4, sibship of idiot father (II. 8) and normal mother 

 {II. 9). III. I, male, tubercular. III. 2 and 3, females, 

 religious maniacs. III. 4, normal male, who marries III. 5, 

 his maternal first cousin, and begets six children, of whom 



^ Pisenti's case, Treasury of Human Inheritance, Fig. 330. 



