APPENDIX. 



ABSTRACTS OF 100 FAMILY HISTORIES OF NOMADS. 



(1) The propositus is a boy, now 13 years old, whose career began when he 

 was 3 years old. He then walked to the railroad, pushed the turnstile, boarded 

 the train, and rode out 12 miles before he was discovered by the conductor. 

 He has run away many times since, despite the best of home influences. He 

 would stay away from home nights; and from the institution where he was placed 

 he ran away 13 times, and scrubbed in the "movies" to get money for food. 

 His mother used to make Saturday a treat day, take a violin lesson with him 

 downtown, and spend the afternoon in the public library, which he much 

 enjoyed, but he would slip away from her and be gone until midnight. His 

 parents exhausted every resource to help him. They took him to Europe 

 when his father went abroad to study. All efforts were without avail. He 

 lies and steals without reason, contracts debts for his father to pay, finally 

 committed a burglary and was sent to a reformatory. Sib: A 6-year-old 

 brother is normal in every way truth-telling and lovable. An only sister died 

 at 2 years of tuberculosis meningitis. 



The father is an intelligent physician, healthy and slender. His father was 

 a Methodist preacher. 



The mother is a small woman who had St. Vitus dance at 12 years, was able 

 to study only intermittently, is subject to frequent headaches. Has musical 

 ability, plays the violin. Has two sisters of good repute. 



The mother's father was a Western desperado; drank hard at times and was 

 involved in murder, etc. The patient does not know of this grandparent. Of 

 the 3 grandchildren of this man the patient is the only one affected. 



The mother's mother was a "very good woman." (3 : 116.) 



(2) The principal fraternity comprises 4 persons. Of the 2 males the elder 

 is dissipated and good for nothing. At 17 he ran away, joined the navy, deserted, 

 and then joined one of the worst gangs in the city, and the younger, at 12 years, 

 is very unmanageable. The elder of the 2 girls has been accustomed to run the 

 streets and play truant, she is extraordinarily erotic and has been placed under 

 State care ; the younger sister is wild, highly erotic, and of a sensitive, shut-in 

 disposition. 



The father, who is nervous, excitable, and hysterical, comes of a fine family of 

 high culture. The father's father was captain in the Civil War; one of his 

 brothers was epileptic, another went insane, and a sister, of brilliant intellect, 

 had a high temper and deserted two husbands in succession. 



The mother, who was of inferior stock to her husband, was very erotic. 

 Her sister had manic-depressive attacks and loved excitement. Of her 3 

 brothers the eldest is a hard-working, honest man; he removed to Texas, but 

 returned home on account of his health. The second is very alcoholic. The 

 third is of good repute ; he lives with his parents "but is away most of the time. 1 ' 



The mother's mother is of a helpless, complaining sort. She has a feeble- 

 minded sister who is subject to epileptic fits and had, illegimately, a son who, 

 after he grew up, went to sea. 



The impulse to run away and join the navy seen in the boy of the principal 

 fraternity has probably come from the mother's side, as a first cousin of this 

 mother similarly went to sea. (9 : 540.) 



27 



