IO8 THE FEEBLY INHIBITED. 



Summarizing, we find the following 7 matings whose frequency is 

 much greater than expectancy ; 



EeC 2 XE2C 2 . Eec 2 Xe 2 Cc. 



C2Cc XE2C 2 . EeC2Xe 2 Cc. EeCcXe 2 Cc. 



C2CC XE2C2. 



It will be observed that in none of these matings are the zygotic 

 formulae of both parents the same; in 6 cases the choleric or nervous 

 temperament is mated with the absence of excitability; likewise, 

 though melancholies marry, they have not (in this table) married 

 melancholies. Also table E shows no case whatever of the mating of 

 two melancholies, and only one mating, out of the 146, of two cholerics. 

 In table E no case occurs of the marriage of two nervous-melancholies 

 nor of two choleric-phlegmatics (though they are common in the popu- 

 lation as a whole). In general the table supports strongly the con- 

 clusion that there is a marriage selection against similar temperaments 

 and a preference in mating for those of more or less markedly dissimilar 

 temperaments. 



VIII. SUICIDE IN RELATION TO TEMPERAMENT. 

 1. INTRODUCTION. 



To the average man in normal health and with emotions undisturbed 

 his own life is the most precious possession, to be protected at all 

 hazards. The strong instinct of self-preservation has its clear biological 

 value when found in normal persons who have not passed the repro- 

 ductive period, since it tends to keep them alive until the next genera- 

 tion has been produced. And if it lingers for some years after the 

 climacteric the fact finds its justification in the utility to the race of 

 the knowledge and experience of older persons. On the other hand, it 

 is clear that under certain conditions a strong love of life is a perversion. 

 It is clearly such in those who are infirm with advanced age; and, 

 indeed, it is not commonly found with such. The strong love of life 

 is, in a degree, a perversion when associated with an incurable and 

 painful disease, although there is a slight biological justification for 

 this association dependent on the fact that there is hardly a disease, 

 even tuberculosis and cancer and paresis, but that may in certain 

 strains and under certain conditions in the prime of life heal itself. 

 From one point of view the love of life in any young person who carries 

 the determiners for an antisocial trait in his soma or his germ-cells is 

 a perversion, for if it were absent the strain would be brought to an 

 end, perhaps before the reproductive period, and the race would be 

 purified. But, first, social ideals change so rapidly that nature has 

 not, as it were, had time to make the adjustment; and secondly, it 

 would be difficult always to say (and it is difficult for "Nature" 

 always to determine) just what strains should be ended by this method. 



