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 
