STUDIES IN HUMAN HEREDITY 



315 



NEPHRITIS. 



Abnormalities associated with defective kidney function as, for exam- 

 ple, the class of diseases called "Bright's disease," frequently show a tend- 

 ency to "run in famiUes." An instance of hereditary defective kidney 

 function, causing death by uraemic poisoning is given in chart, figure 45. 

 Only the father is said to have suffered from this defect. Of the seven 

 children four have already died at about the age of forty years, and another 

 is undoubtedly also affected. Only two of the children appear free of the 

 abnormal condition. The character of the factor, whether recessive or 

 dominant, does not very clearly appear. The limited data at hand, however 

 favor more a recessive interpretation; the normals may perhaps be simply 

 relatively "normal." 



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Fig. 45 Nephritis. 



Fig. 46 Bright's Disease. 



Mr. C. G. Giddings of Atlanta, Georgia, has given me a very similar 

 pedigree of apparently hereditary kidney defect (fig. 46) . Among a child- 

 ship of five, including two males and three females, one male has just died 

 of uraemic poisoning at the age of forty-two; and the three sisters, close 

 to thirty-five years of age, are all sufferers from chronic "Bright's disease." 

 In the direct ancestry both father and grandmother died of Bright's disease. 

 The two affected males were also "heavy drinkers." 



MELANCHOLIA. 



The melanchoha here considered (fig. 47) may properly be classified 

 among the phenomena of nervous defects. In every instance, with the 

 exception of the young individual of the last generation, the prevalent 

 melancholic temperment, under stress of misfortuine usually of a financial 

 nature, developed into a condition of mild insanity. The crisis in each 

 instance came about the age of fifty. At least one individual in the direct 



