The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-11-11
ant occasions. When first incarcerated

ent occasions. When first incarcerated
she was young and had but two chill
dren; now she is the mother of eleven.
OF these eleven children several died of
convulsi0ns, and at present only four
are alive, one of whom is already an
epileptic imbeciie. This woman knew
what she was about when she married,
for her mother and her sister We're in
sane and although her wretched chill
dren died one after another she con-
tinued to bear them.
Now can anyone deny that it would
have been decided gain all round if
this poor woman had been detained
permanently after, say her second
attack. AS the law at present stands
she must be discharged every time she
RECEIVERS, however brief the period of
apparent mental health may prove to
be. Had such u course been taken, q
vast amount of suffering would have
been avoided, not only by the children
but by the woman herself, and the rate
the end : for there can be no doubt that
some of the surviving children, if not
all, will become a charge upon him
sooner or later
! Here is the record of another family
which the commonwealth could well
have done without, and whose very
existence is disgrace to our civilza-
ton. In this case, / could get no
family history earlier than the father
and mother. The father is poor, de-
generate creature who suffers severely
from nervous disease, and the mother
is an imbecile This worthy couple
have exercised "the divine right of
procreation" with the following result ::
There have been fourteen children.
The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth
and twelfth died of convulsions. The
eighth is an epileptic imbecile. The
eleventh is a dumb idiot, and the
youngest is dying of consumption.
One child was accidentally drowned,
and the other four who survive are
poor things, much like their mother,
and will doubtless find the struggle for
a living too much for them, and before
long come upon the rates. In this in.
stance the suffering called into being
is SO patent and so lamentable that
comment is uncalled for.
II may be argued that even in cases
like the foregoing there is not, pri-
marily, enough evidence to justify Il
denial of the right to exercise The high
est function of the individual. But
even if some be of this opinion no one
can assert that there was not sufficient
evidence 10 satisfy the most scepticas
after the birth of the first two or three
children in each family. Moreover the
foregoing are hy no means what might
he called bad cases Of the kind. They
are common, everyday cases, and have
been given here merely because they
are the first authenticated cases which
the writer came across in his note
book. there are hundreds of infinitely
worse cases occurring every year in
every level of society.
In one case we have the inter.mar-
riage of members of two families sat
urated with insanity followed by the
usual consequences, viz, insanity, de-
generating into idiocy and eXtermi-
nation of the family. Now, in the
fourth generation, we have the TWO
large families represented by four
wretched children, one an idiot, and
the others ill-developed both bodily and
mentally, and probably sterile. IN all
probability the stock will become eX-
linct with the present generation ; but
for this much-to be desired c0nsumma-
tion we have to thank neither the self.
denial of the individuals, nor the laws
of society and had not Nature for
hidden it, there is nothing to lead us to
believe that this family of sufferers
would not have been perpetuated indef-