The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-01-27
[From the independent
Laws of Hereditary Descent.
BY NATHAN ALLEN, N. d.


in the Decalogue, not only to the Israel
ties, but to his creatures in all comin(
time, saying: 81, the Lord thy God, an
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity o
the fathers upon the children, unto the
third and fourth generations" it was in
tended that there should be some mean.
ing in that visitation. When the laws oi
the human system are correctly and fully
understood, it will be seen that this ordi
nance is not all dead letter.
The term "iniquity," as here used, has
broad signifcation, including the con-
sequences or penalties of each and every
violated law whether that law be ex-
pressed in the revealed command of God
or stamped by the same Almighty power
upon the human constitution. In the
fulfllment of this command or decree,
whatever divine influences or agencies
may be brought into operation in other
respects, it is positively certain that by
the fixed laws of hereditary descent, the
iniquities of the fathers in a variety of
forms are visited upon the children even
to the fourth generation. We might
speak Of the effects Of bad example, of
evil instruction, and train of corrupt
influences in a variety of ways, whereby
the iniquity of parents come upon their
/ children; but there is another channel
/ in which the effects of this rotation are
more direct, positive, and powerful than
these outward agencies. The former may
be more easily overcome or corrected,
but the latter are far more difficult to
change, at least for the better.
| While we have had instructions on
this subject for thousands of years, and,
still have from the pulpit, from the press,
and in many other ways, but little, COM
paratively. is said or written on the di-
rect physical relation of parent and
child. When the laws of physiology are
fully anu correctly understood in this
respect they will throw new light
upon the duties and responsibilities of
the parental relation. In fact, it is i'm
possible to realize or conceive at present,
the value or the amount of knowledge
which will yet be brought from this
source to bear practically upon all the
relations of life. Only few suggestions
can be made in a short newspaper article
THAT, too, bearing simply on one rela-
ton. No language can express the inn
portance OF transmitting a sound, healthy
body. 1t is the best capital which any
human being can possess. 1t can be
used or turned to more valuable account
than any other possession. A large pro-
portion of the weaknesses and diseases
of the body are transmitted-that is, the
liabilities, the predispositions the seeds
of disease. What multitudes go through
life, racked with pains and sufferings,
crippled and disabled, in all their efforts,
by reason of inherited weakness. Many,
too, on this account, sink down into an
early grave, while to others, is allotted,
perhaps, a long life of feeblen ess and
suffering
The more thoroughly the primary
causes of disease, together with the laws
of birth and life are understood, the
more and more are the starting points,
the original sources, the main springs of
disease found to exist in the body itself
AS pathology is comparatively a new sci
ence, it is difficult to determine with ex-
actness what proportion of disease thus
originates; but it would not be surpris-
ing, if one-third or onehalf can be traced
directly or indirectly to this source.
So well established is this fact, that
there is a large class of diseases called
hereditary, and one of the first inquiries
made by a physician called to q new pa
tient is what were the complaints or dis
eases of his parents or ancestors. The
fact should be stated, too, that these he
reditary diseases are very difficult to
cure, and when apparently cured they
frequently return, having their seat or
originating source in the constitution
itself. In one direction these transmit.
ted effects are most striking as well as
affiicting-viz: in mental arrangement
The fact is well established that in one
quarter or one-third Of all cases of insan-
ity, there may be found instances or
traces of the disease among the ancestors
of the patient. And if the exact truth
I l.. L 4
much larger proportion than that there
would be found some abnormalties-pre-
disposing causes or strong proclivities
that way. There is another direction
where these transmitted qualities become
very striking-viz.: in propensities bent
on crime. In jails and penitentiaries it
has been known for long time that des-
perate criminals had, generally speaking.
a bad parental or ancestral record, that
the seeds of vice and crime were trans
mitted from one generation to another.
So we'll understood is this fact that tie
saying has become proverbial that the
children of such and such parents will
become bad characters, criminals, 20 to
iail, or be hung. A noted fact of this
kind has lately been going the newspa-
per rounds, headed Margaret, the Moth
er of Criminals The facts were these
An agent Of the New York Prison Asso-
citation, in visiting certain Jail in that
state, found six persons bearing so strik-
! ing a resemblance it led him to inquire
who they were. After spending much
time in tracing back their history and
genealogy for several generations, he
found they originated from a woman of
bad character, and that in all the fami-
/ lies originating from the same source,
/ there had been l20 criminals who had
received 40 years imprisonment. Be
sides these criminals, there had been
connected with these families several
/ hundred paupers and offenders of law,
all of whom had cost the public near
million of dollars.
If careful inquiry were made into the
history and genealogy of all the inmates
Of our prisons, jails, houses Of correction,
and almshouses. we should find a vast
amount Of poverty, vice and crime
which can be traced back directly or in