Wichita eagle., 1886-12-09

their persons and transmitted their injuries
to their ofsprings for the purpose of speculat-
ing on these deformities.
Dr. Eugene Dupere cut the vasomotor
nerve eonnected.with the carotoid artery of a
Guinea pig and a result the eye on the mutt
lated side became permanently smaller
and the ear thicker and larger and these pc
culiarities were transmitted through five
generations.
Brown Sequard found by experiment on
the same Species that the cutting of the
sciaticn erve was followed by a destruction
, of the outer part of the foot, leaving but the
inner toe on the injured side and this pc
culiarity was permanently transmitted.
Other scientists have found by experiment
! and observation that similar injuries are
transmitted not only to the young of the an
| imalS operated upon, but for generations at
terward Most Statistics are apt to be re
garded with Impotence, but these illustrate
in marked manner the operations of the
F laws of heredity in the transmissal of the
criminal bias and the predispoSition to III
sanity, idiocy and disease.
, Let us look at the manifestation of the
| heredity of alcoholism. The medical Htera
| ture of the last two or more decades abounds
| in proofs of its effects in producing insanity
and disease. Austin says: The nervous en-
Fl feeblement produced in an ancestor by great
excess in drink is reproduced in his descend
i ants with the effects of producing insanity
II in one, epilepsy in another, neuralgia in 6
| third and alcoholic excuses III fourth" II
:, was found in a Swedish asylum that half OF
the insane men had been hard drinkers.
The effects of the removal of the heavy
! tax on alcohol drinks in Norway from 1872;
to 1886 were as follows: The increase for the
whole population was in mania Al per cent
melancholia 60 per cent. and dementia y
per cent.
Worse even than this were the effects foI
the ensuing generations, for idiocy increased
80 per cent
mented consumption of alcohol was shown by
DAHL who found that out of lis idiots 90 per
cent We're the children of drunken parents
or mothers" Morel traces the effects of in
temperance in one family and sketches it as
follows: First generation, immortality,
depravity, intemperance and sotishness
second generation, hereditary drunkenness,
generation, hypochondriac tendency, homi-
cidal proclivities; fourth generation, intelli-
gence hardly developed, stupidity, leading to
| idiocyn
Relative to the heredity of crime, Despine
in Physiologic Watenelle cites the Jean
Chrotien family whose history for three
| generations was condensed as follows:
There were but sixteen persons; ten of them
were convicted of capital offenses, six of
which were murder.
Dr. Despine observes the tendency of such
families to unite, thus comforting the here
ditary transmission. He also notes the fact
that insanity is much more frequent among
criminals than other persons, which in a
measure proves that insanity and crime are
closely connected. By consulting the report
of N. Charles Hoyt, secretary of the state
board of charities of New York, for 1871
we find proof strong as Holy Writ of the
laws of heredity. 'In the poor house Of
Ontario county there were one hundred and
thirteen inmates there together with their
ancestors for three generations living and
dead represented ninety families and in
| these families were enc hundred and sixty
eight dependents, twenty-six insane, twelve
idiots and one hundred and three inebriates
| Other counties in the state make similar re-
ports of their charitable Institutions.
The total in the almshOuses of the state waS
twelve thousand, SIX hundred and fourteen
inmates, who represented ten thousand one
hundred and siXty-one families, whose mem
berS for three generations. living and dead,
had among them fourteen Thousand nine
hundred dependents and four thousand and
nine. hundred and sixiy-eight insane, eight
hundred and forty-four Idiots. and eight
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three inc
briates. In round numbers here are ten
thousand families who have produced fifteen
thousand paupers; of insane and inebriatGS
combined about fifteen thousand, or three to
every 'baO families in each OF these two
classes.
Can you cunceive of such community of
fostering evils and not believe that heredity
was powerful factor in producing it?"
The records of the almshouses of the other
states would doubtless make as dark, a show
ing for diseased. debauched and depraved
humanity as do those of New York. at
tempted to get the reports of the charitable
institutions of Kansas in time to use them
b,,f fa-l1 In,
think Kansas can make better showing |
than New York, and that is in the smaller |
per cent of inebriates. idiots, paupers and J
criminals in our charitable institutions as a |
result of alcoholism.
Our great state is too young to furnish |
many statistics from which the history OF |
heredity can be traced.
Returning to the State Of New York we
will take the history of the Junks family
Springing from one wicked woman in 1853
there has been a progeny of twelve thousand,
of which two hundred and eighty were pau
perized adults, one hundred and forty Grim
inals, sixty thieves and seYen murders, be-
sides long list of RIGHTEOUSNESS and petty
crimes. 1t is estimated that the members of
this wicked family have cost the state and
society one million and eighty thousand dol
are IN the last seventy five years
This is not an exceptional case. There are
many families in New York and all the
older states with similar records or crime ,
md pauperism with its resulting burden of
expense and suffering laid upon the should
RS of innocent people.
The celebrated Margaret. mother of Grim 9
mails, furnishes striking illustration of a
hereditary crime. An Investigation was {
maze through the New York Prison associa-
ion in the jailS and prisons of that state t
vten~ ing back SIX generations, which re- v
ulted in trac,-~~ out nearly three hundred a
riminals descended ron this wicked 0
oman. DR.. kerlin, superinte..+ ent OF a Il
ate institution for feeble minded children, v
Meada, Ia, says in paper on the Caus o.
.lon OF ldlocy, that in q per centum 90 =. o,
ldlocy, we find as concurre~ a - Il
anu insanity oegettnG ...,ocy, introduces ii
ate 70 sat or' 4ue . for the law of the a.
-, .n' whether marriage of the a
;idently unfit shall bc tolerated ana whether
auper imbeciles Sail continue to entail on
he community burden of woe and expense +
lat heaps up in misery the further it de St
,ends. We Will not look longer upon this q
ID and somber pictnre of fallen humanity >,
all the evils crimes and diseases OF a race "
Jay be transmitted, the converse of this Is lie
Tie and all that is good, noble, grand, high al
t and best may be aud in reality Will be n
ansmitted. As in the realm of matter anu :,
,rce nothing Is lost To the world at large u
o atom of matter is ever annihiated, no III
llsation of force ever lost 10 the grand total II
forces marShalled in the world for action. -
0 in the physical world, not an impulse "
lat thrills the heart or thought that find. "a
tgement IL the brai,: or as registered in the
angliae of the nervous system is ever lost; ii
1sSlve 1t may be for a time, perhaps for one,
yo or more generations. but III the coming y"
ecades or centuries 1t viii be heart from m eI
bring, 1t may be the gre cnleftlan at the V,
AaH ~ n h.