The Wilmingtonian., 1886-08-07

inquiry, not yet ever seriously attempted,
namely, the production and the elimination
of constitutional di,ease-ttndencie and dis
ease-immunities ir the offspring by the com
binations of different parental disease-ten-
denotes and disease immunities. And not of
Observation-Disclosures only of the same kind as
the parent has. II a child have a disease un-
like that which either parent had, it may
nevertheless owe it to them; for there is
abundant reason to believe that variations
may occur in morbid heredity, just AS they
do phys Olpg gically. What are the morbid
outcomeS Of the union of gouty and Il
phthScal diathcss? ? How IS it that diabetes
runs alternately OF coinciieutly with insanity
in families, as it certainly seems sometimes
to do? What is the tit constitu !onal ten
dency to neutralizs, in inter breeding, pre-
disposition to cancer? How best mate the
person who has constitutional predispostion
to maduess, so as to neutralize it in the pro-
geny, or, beJter still, to convert it into a
good eyolutiOnal variation Why and under
what condition is it that the epilepsy Of one
generation is transformed into the insanity
of the next generation? These and many
like questions in reference to other morbid
constitutional states easily suggest them
selves for systematic investigation. When
medical science is able to answer them pre-
cisely,aud to make practical use of its know
ledge for the prevention of disease, it will
have achieved work Of protective hygiene
such as the most enthusiastic sanitarians
| hardly yet dream Of
1t is au old stony that genius and madness
are nearly allied. Assuredly they do often
occur side by side or in succession, in the
same families. The son or brother of per-
son who committed suicide, OF was other.
wise diSorder,d mentally, may be a genius.
1t is no eXaggcrlt.on to say that there is
hardly ever man &C genius who has not in
sanity or nervous disorder of some form in
his family. In order to 90 mad OF to be a
genius the person must be orgiual-that is
to say, must have a constitutional dissatis-
faction with things as they are, and an ur-
| gent impulse TO get Oft the beaten tracks of
thou Iht and ?eelinI in which ninty nine per-
sons out ofa handled go contentedlyall their
lives.
| 1t would appear then, that when any one
has IA tincture Of originality in him, inspiring
and urging him to think feel, AID do differ
emily from all the rest of the world, lie must
be one of two thiugs-ethcr genius who is
in advance of the world, ahead OF it in
thought, feeling, aud action, or madmal
who is alien from it !; in both cases he repre-
Senls an organic variation, which in the on,
case is physiological or evolutiJnal, in the
other pathological ahd dcgcneratlvc. It
will BE- Il genius when, along with his urgen
Individuality he has a strong brain that fit
him to maintain the balance between him
self and the world, either by conforming apt
ly to circumstances, or by compelling tn
circumstances to conform to him !; he will b
a ldmam when, along with his urgent Judi
yiduality, he has weak brain which fall
to keep the balance. The indisputabe an,
instructive fact is thai Of two persons Of th
same morbid stock aud Of the same genera
tiom, the one shall exhibit physiological
variation which marks new step of evOlu
~
variation which is really step in degcner
acy. Seeing, then, that in this case yalu
able dcv opmeutal variation is bred Of al
unsound stock by suitable union, what con
: lectures legitimate or illegitimate may W
not form? Night not an equal constitution
al gain Of different kind be perhaps obtain
ed by the suitable union aud happy directiu
of the eXeursiye forces Of other morbid cor
stitntional dispositions?
Here m be noted another law or ter
dcncy the like of which is observed in dis
ease, namely, the tendency to rev,It to til
normal type. When the body is disurere
in disease its natural tendency is to right il
self its most stable and comfortable stat
is state of health, and to that equilibrium
it gravitales naturally, when it is not hinder
ed hy meddesome medicine So also is
through generations 1t would not be puss
: BILE to breed and rear race of idiots o. luz
atics however painstaking and persistent I'll
attempts. Impotence and sterilty woul
put stop to the unnatural business. N,
would it probably be poss BILE to breed rae
of men to all of VIII IN cancer should be a
natural an inheritance as original sin Eithe
cancer would bring the lace of meu to il
end, or the race of men would get rid Of til
cancer. Health is the normal and stable
disease the incidental and passing condition
and So it CONES to pass that through genera
/ tons, a' in individual life, the organic ba
is to make up shortcomings, torectify dt viz
tio $, " bling disorder back to order.
not the law of herd ty Mt boz tom an expres
Slon of this tend ncy, since It's operation
most ev d mt in the PRESERVATION Of tie NOR
stable Characters of the species?
, Olc consideration more with regard t
mo'h Il variations naturally arises. Does
ever larpti. that a new disease is produced
Mt an o d disease IN Il new guiSe or in ne
situauun Gut a disease that never was bef,l
under the SNn-ActuaIly new New disease
have, % ruutsr, been discovered and des
clibsd from time To time, but ia respect t
m st "f III m it is pretty certain that til
uewLr~s wa~ ia tie discoveries, not IN tn
d ;, asr,, II ,wcrer 1t is m tinratncd by N
less ,inu,nt u authority than SIR j lme
PaAet mat thert' are good tlrprct cal reason
L., bnnNu Jlat deviations from t.lr usul
N t. 4 tyirs, 10 such AN cxlert as TO gepei
i e nrA li-c.rc~, may and do take place, al
bau Il. al!"N~ lha evidence not to be decis
mach wcrG l I" the Iact that disease wa