718 
HEREDITARY INFLUENCE. 
convenient supposition that deformed germs also pre-existed. 
Still there were troublesome facts not to be so got rid of. 
There were hybrids, for example. No one could say that 
there were pre-existent germs which were half horse and 
half donkey, or half wolf and half dog, or quarter wolf and 
three quarters dog. 
We will not, however, linger over such hypotheses, anxious 
as we are to glance at matters of more practical interest ; 
among them, the very important question of hereditary 
insanity. Every one is familiar with the fact of the trans- 
mission of this terrible malady, but not every one is aware 
of the extraordinary resemblance sometimes manifested in 
the nature of the attacks, and their periodical recurrence. 
Moreau relates the case of a man who, greatly agitated by 
the events of the French Revolution, shut himself up in one 
room from which he never stirred during ten years; his 
daughter, on reaching the age at which he was attacked, 
fell into the same state, and could not be made to quit her 
apartment. Esquirol tells of a lady who in her twenty-fifth 
year went out of her mind after her accouchement ; her 
daughter was afflicted in the same way, at the same age, and 
under the same circumstances. We cannot here afford 
space for more illustrations ;* the two just cited will suffice 
to indicate the tragic fact, that insanity is not only trans- 
missible, but may suddenly manifest itself in persons who 
have hitherto shown no predisposition to it. The fact 
forces upon every mind an awful sense of responsibility, 
when a parent or guardian has to decide on permitting a 
marriage where the “ hereditary taint” exists. It is a sub- 
ject which has recently been handled in four fictions : in 
the ‘House of Raby , 5 in Miss Jewsbury’s ‘Constance 
Herbert,’ in Holme Lee’s c Gilbert Massenger,’ and in Wilkie 
Collins’s e Moncktons of Wincot Abbey . 5 The three first 
named have used it not only as a tragic pivot, but as a 
moral lesson ; and in so doing have taken the licence of 
fiction to promulgate very absolute moral views, upon which 
it is our duty to make some remarks. 
These writers all assume that the transmission of the 
malady is inevitable, and hence they insist on the duty of 
renunciation. No one with the “hereditary taint” is jus- 
tified in marrying. He must bear his burden ; he must not 
compromise for selfish enjoyments the happiness of de- 
scendants. Were the problem really so simple as these 
* Dr. Forbes Winslow might take up this topic in his valuable c Journal 
of Psychological Medicine ’ with good effect. 
