358 Recent Studies of the Inheritance Factor in Insanity 
British Medical Journal of May 11, 1912 (p. 1060), he states that "this signal 
tendency of insane offspring to suffer with a more intense form of the disease and 
at an early age, as shown in the above figures and tables, is of great importance 
for the following reasons : first, it is one of Nature's methods of ending or mending 
a degenerate stock ; secondly, it is of importance to the physician, for he can say 
that there is a diminishing risk of the child of an insane parent becoming insane 
after he has passed 25, a matter of great importance in the question of marriage ; 
thirdly, it is of importance in connection with the subject of social surgery of the 
insane, for when the first attack of insanity occurs in the parent the children for 
the most part have all been born.... Sterilization would therefore be applicable to 
relatively few parents admitted to asylums." 
Put briefly, Dr Mott's views are that in " Antedating " or " Anticipation," in 
this alleged tendency of the offspring to become insane at any earlier age than 
their parents, we have Nature's method of purifying degenerate stocks, that the 
children of insane parents who are still normal at the age of 25 may safely marry*, 
and that it is useless to take any special measures to limit the reproduction of the 
insane since nearly all their children are born before the onset of insanity. 
These conclusions, if proved to be correct, would be of the utmost importance 
to the Eugenist. If the Law of Antedating or Anticipation really acts in the 
way Dr Mott has suggested, then it would seem to be unnecessary to take any 
special Eugenic action in the case of the insane and indeed the " Law " has already 
been used in support of this view. Thus in a leading article in the British Medical 
Journal^, which deals with Dr Mott's work, it is stated that "This intensification 
of mental disease in the young — this ' anticipation ' as it is called, which is one of 
Nature's methods of ending or mending a degenerate stock, is specially important 
in connection with sterilization, as the figures given by Dr Mott show that when 
the first attack of insanity occurs in the parent the children have for the most part 
all been born. Sterilization, therefore, would be applicable in relatively few 
cases." 
It is at least obvious that when views such as these are taken of the " Law of 
Anticipation," it merits the most careful examination. Let us consider, then, first 
of all, Dr Alott's presentation of the case for anticipation. For some years past 
Dr Mott has been engaged in the collection of cases in which two or more members 
of a family are or have been resident in London County Asylums, and has noted 
wherever possible the age of onset of the insanity. Information was thus obtained 
regarding 217 pairs of father and offspring, and 291 pairs of mother and offspring 
and the results are summed up in the following table. 
Thus in comparing the age at onset of insanity in father and offspring, we find 
that among the fathers only 1'4 '7o became insane before the age of 20, while among 
the offspring the percentage was 26"2. These figures are also shown graphically in 
* See for instance Problems in Euy/niics, p. 4'2G. 
t May 11, 1912, p. 1089. 
