272 Biology in America 



the companionship of older, wild boys and cannot be weaned 

 from them. He lies, runs up accounts in his parents' name, 

 is acquiring bad sexual habits, and runs away from home. 

 He has two, fine, studious brothers. His father is a strong 

 character and a successful lawyer, his mother an excellent 

 woman, intelligent and firm. She has a brother who left 

 home at 14 to seek a life of adventure. He finally settled 

 down to a steady life.. Their father's father was erratic. 

 He loved Indian outdoor life, always used an Indian blanket 

 and at over 70 years swam the Mississippi River. He traced 

 back his ancestry to Pocahontas. He has another grandson, 

 who is an unruly character with a roving disposition; he 

 joined the navy and his whereabouts are unknown ; his father 

 was a lawyer and a fine character. 



"An intelligent physician with training abroad as well as 

 in this country and of a good family (his brother is a college 

 professor and his father a Methodist preacher) married a lady 

 of good family, with much musical talent, but subject to 

 migraine and formerly to chorea. They have two sons born 

 in the best of environments. The younger is still in the 

 kindergarten, seems wholly normal, truth-telling and lovable ; 

 the other, now 13, developed normally, has had no convulsions, 

 and has never been seriously sick and ordinarily sleeps well. 

 He has regular, refined features and a normal alert attitude 

 and is very industrious. He attends Sunday school regu- 

 larly, has excellent talent for music. At 3 years of age he 

 walked to a nearby railroad, boarded a train and was carried 

 12 miles before the conductor discovered him; since then he 

 has run away very many times. From an institution for 

 difficult boys, where he was placed, he ran away 13 times. 

 He escapes from his home after dark and sleeps in neighbor- 

 ing doorways. His mother used to make Saturday a treat 

 day. She would take a violin lesson with him and spend 

 the afternoon in the Public Library which he much enjoyed 

 but he would slip away from her on the way home and be 

 gone until midnight. He is an unconscionable liar. He con- 

 tracts debts, steals when he has no use for the articles stolen 

 and has been convicted for burglary. Much money and 

 effort have been spent on him in vain. His mother's father 

 (of whom he has never heard) was a western desperado, drank 

 hard and was involved in a murder, but finally married a very 

 good woman, and has 2 normal daughters in addition to this 

 boy's mother." 5 



As examples of the inheritance of physical defects may be 

 cited that of deaf -mutism, hare lip and cleft palate, imperfect 



"Davenport, " Heredity in Relation to Eugenics," pp. 85-90. By per- 

 mission of Henry Holt and Company. 



