44 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



and Weeks seem to hold that while it is sometimes completely 

 recessive, it is commonly only partly so, the simplex condition 

 being indicated by milder forms of nervous disorder. For these 

 authors almost any condition not quite normal may be indicative 

 of the simplex type which includes neurotics, criminals, sex 

 offenders, alcoholics, persons suffering from tuberculosis, migraine 

 and apoplexy. In fact judging from the variety of so-called 

 simplex types scarcely anyone would fail to qualify for this dis- 

 tinction. Inasmuch as epileptics sometimes come from parents 

 classed as normal the presumption is that in some stocks the 

 dominance of the normal condition must be variable. It is not 

 improbable that some strains tend to transmit a more malignant 

 type of the disorder than others. But we need more data on this 

 point. Despite the evident labor involved in the work of Daven- 

 port and Weeks on the inheritance of epilepsy, the general results 

 serve chiefly to emphasize the fact that very little is known about 

 the subject. The uncritical way in which some of the work was 

 done is clearly shown by the severe and somewhat acrimonious 

 criticism to which it was subjected by Heron who pointed out 

 numerous inaccuracies and contradictions throughout the original 

 paper, as well as in the later contribution by Weeks. 



The evidence that epilepsy is transmitted as a single unit 

 character is entirely inadequate; there is only a certain presump- 

 tion derived more from analogy than the evidence in hand, that it 

 obeys Mendel's law; we are not clear how it is related in inheri- 

 tance to feeble-mindedness, or other forms of defect. The evi- 

 dence that epilepsy is strongly transmitted, however, is quite 

 conclusive, whatever opinions may be held as to its precise mode 

 of transmission. 



INSANITY 



For a long time it has been known that a proclivity to insanity 

 may be inherited. At the same time it is universally conceded 

 that people are often rendered insane through disease, injury or 

 severe mental shock. Authorities vary remarkably in their 



