REPORTS FROM THE SECTIONS. 351 
well as epilepsy, chorea, neuralgia, and other nerve disorders, 
itted from parent to offspring.” It is, in my opinion, not 
too much to say that any person who marries, except under very 
ial circumstances, after such a marked and prolonged attac 
of mental derangement as required hospital treatment, commits a 
crime against posterity. 
Five per cent. of the cases in the Gladesville and 4°8 per cent. in 
the English table are stated to be congenital in origin. Among the 
causes of congenital mischief are said to be a condition of intoxi- 
cation or epilepsy on the part of parents during coition or concep- 
tio; the marriage of near kin; ill health, injuries, persistent 
sickness, emotional excitement, anxiety and fright on the part of 
the mother during pregnancy ; injurious compression of the cranial 
bones and brain from contracted passage or protracted labour ; the 
misuse of forceps ; and suspended animation after birth, the latter 
considered by Dr. Langdon Down to be a frequent cause. As to 
drunkenness or epilepsy during coition or conception as a cause of 
congenital mental defect, I must confess that I am sceptical, and 
the truth must be difficult to prove. 
The effect of the marriage of near kin has been debated at very 
considerable length. Huth, whose elaborate work on this subject 
8 well known, and whose opinions have been widely adopted out- 
side our profession, scouts the idea that consanguineous marriages 
ae harmful, and answers the question whether consanguineous 
marriages give a greater proportion of unhealthy children than non- 
sanguineous marriages with a decided negative, stating that even 
where the marriages of blood relations are habitual, deterioration 
even through the chance accumulation of an idiosyncrasy, practi- 
cally does not occur oftener than in other marriages. Other 
observers have, ho ever, come to a different conclusion, and 1 
i consangui iage. own experience on the 
subject is. linn: guineous marriage pe tt ‘le 
in one family have come under my observation the 
in w i bee spins ee I 
Gt which I have known three children in one family idiotic 
Union of 
ee 
