338 NATURE AND LIFE. 



scrofula. The changes that occur in the physiological bal- 

 ance of the individual act decidedly upon the progress 

 and the appearance of constitutional disorders. Thus in- 

 sanity very often makes itself known just after menstrua- 

 tion, pregnancy, or childbirth ; epilepsy and hysteria in 

 like manner become active at the time when the signs of 

 puberty first appear. Education and manners have a simi- 

 lar influence. Cruel treatment and extreme severitj 7 , as 

 also utter want of discipline and of watchful care, often 

 produce lamentable effects on the brain of young children. 

 Alcoholic indulgences and high living are fatal to per- 

 sons born of parents afflicted with gout and gravel ; while 

 poverty and unwholesomeness in their surroundings deci- 

 mate those who bear the seeds of consumption within 

 them. 



At any rate, the destructiveness of hereditary diseases 

 is a sad and striking fact, known in all its mournfulness only 

 to those who are called every day to observe its conse- 

 quences. One needs to see the premature infirmities, the 

 wasting sufferings, the irredeemable misfortunes, the keen 

 and lingering anguish to which parents often doom their chil- 

 dren while they believe they are transmitting to them the 

 blessing of life, if one would judge of the might of that 

 fell spirit of disease lurking in the inmost depths of their 

 being. One must read the authors who have written on 

 these subjects, and especially our learned French special- 

 ists in insanity, to gain acquaintance with that mysterious 

 and maleficent potency which that frail and innocent being, 

 the object, for one fleeting moment of illusions, of every 

 joy, and blessing, and smiling hope, so often brings as its 

 companion when it opens its eyes to the light of day. 



As a general statement, it may be said that hereditary 

 transmission, either of personal peculiarities in anatomical 

 structure and in temperament, or of aptitudes to take on 

 one or another morbid state, which also depends on certain 



