24 THE FEEBLY INHIBITED. 



VII. NOMADIC OCCUPATIONS. 



The peculiar impulses of nomads lead them to choose occupations 

 in the pursuit of which they are carried to new scenes and otherwise 

 have satisfied their craving for travel and adventure. Among such 

 occupations are : pioneer settler, cowboy, seaman, sailing-master, ship- 

 cook, marine, naval officer, traveler, explorer, naturalist, missionary, 

 traveling salesman, itinerant bookseller, peddler, itinerant tinkerer 

 and kettle mender, tramp, "beach-comber" of the South Seas, profes- 

 sional pedestrian, soldier (especially in times of peace) , engineer, conduc- 

 tor, brakeman, train hand, lineman, chauffeur, stage or express driver, 

 jockey, horse-racer. Such occupations are in contrast with clerk, 

 factory hand, shop-keeper, domestic servant, small farmer, success in 

 which requires sessility, stability, persistence, domesticity. Many 

 ascribe the wandering traits often found in the first group to the nature 

 of their occupation. Inquiry will frequently reveal the fact that the 

 nomadic occupation has been selected because it accords with the 

 innate tastes and impulses of the restless man. 



VIII. ASSOCIATION OF THE NOMADIC IMPULSE WITH PSYCHOSES. 



The first thing that strikes one in an examination of the family 

 histories is the frequent association in the same family and even in the 

 same individual of nomadism and various well-known aberrant nervous 

 and mental states. Among these conditions that are extraordinarily 

 common are : periodic psychoses, with depression and frequently suicide 

 {e. g., Nos. 2, 13, 19,2* 20,» 24, 25,« 29,2 32, 38, 41,3 44, 45, 49,' 76,2 78, 

 85,^ 89,^ 92,^) ; fits of temper, including various explosive tempers {e. g., 

 Nos. 13," 20,^ 24,^ 25,2 41,^ 54,^ 62,2 73,2 95,^ 98,^ 99^); migraine and 

 periodic headaches {e. g., Nos. 3,^ 23,^ 42,^ 49, 58, 69, 80,^ 85, 100); 

 epilepsy {e. g., Nos. 5,=* 11, 21, 43,^ 50,^ 54,* 65, 85, 99^); hysterical 

 attacks (e. g., Nos. 8, 24,^ 25, 42, 61, 85, 95); sprees {e. g., Nos. 12, 25,^ 

 34, 40, 60,^ 85, 90, 100^); sexual outbreaks or general weakness of 

 sex control (e. g., Nos. 14,^ 29,^ 40,* 47,^ 50,^ 60,^ 71,^ 89,^ 95^). These 

 states are characterized above all by periodicity and lead to the con- 

 clusion that nomadism is a trait that belongs especially to families 

 that are subject to periodic emotional disturbances. 



This association in the same family of the nomadic impulse and 

 numerous other periodic disturbances throws much new light, I think, 

 on the significance of the nomadic impulse. The old view ascribes 

 the impulse now to the epilepsy, again to the hysteria, and still again 

 to the depression or to the sexual outburst. That is the meaning of 

 the classifications, given at the outset of this paper, of the different 

 sorts of fugues. But the family histories show that epilepsy, hysteria, 

 depression, etc., may occur without the nomadic impulse, as the 



*The exponent expresses the number of individuals in the history that shows the trait. 



