The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-23
A Study IN HEREDITY.
Result. OF the Union of a stupid Race With
One brilliant. but Tainted.

Herr,lity is a conspicuous feature I'm the
theory of criminal anthropulogy held 10y
| the school of which LombrOso Is the lead
or, and Lombroso's Arohiyio iii Psichiatria
contains In recent issue an article illus
trating Il. Ii is "a story by Ro,-.eri Ill
Rocchi of three generations of an Italian
family. D., whose family since the early
years of the sixteenth century had pro-
duced only commonplace men and women,
married L., whose ancestors, Immediate
and remote. had been brilliant men and
women, with here ana there physical
faint that often took the form of ophthal-
mia and Of "a degeneration affecting the
skin, while others had exhibited psyche
ethical anomalies. d. was normal and
nndisringusheG, like all his recent anccs'
tors, and was mauifestly the inferior of
his wife Sho Inherited the brilliancy of
her race gathered about her an intellec-
tual society and sometimes wrote verse.
Her letters 20 D. were clever and charm
ing, though not marked with strong evil
dences of affection. D. s chief defect as
husband was certain inilrmity of temper,
marked by occasional outbursts of anger.
Six children were born 10 this pair.
One son showed great brilliancy and fond
ness for study, SO that DO promised TO
make q namo I'm the world of science or of
letters, but he was early overtaken by
blindness through the inherited faint, and
he died az go undistinguishCd The sec
ond was "mattoid,' i'm the language OF
LOmbrOso and his school lie was clever,
but utterly without application. Satiric
poetry was his passion. lie took TO drink
and 10 play, thus exhibiting the psyche
ethical taDJ Of his mother $ family, and
died at 30 from Tine result OF uvorlndul-
gunce la the course uiHtoU rapid Tile. Tho
fathers imirmlty oil temper took with this
child the form Of marked impulsiveness.
The thirG child, daughter, was distin-
guished for eXtrcmO sensibility and sweet
ness Of character. She was aflootionGte,
charitable and self sacrificing. She lost
her husband and her daughter, however,
within month and became "a mad hypo-
chondriac, thus exhibiting the mental
faint of the mothers family. Two other
daughters inherited the fathers normal
character and apparently not his indrmity
of temper, as they are dismissed with Il
line. The sixth child, boy, inherited
traits Of both parents in a marked degree.
He was warmly affcctionate, and his
moral sense was highly developed; but,
like the father, he was irascible and at
times driven to exhibitions of great anger
by tritles. He developed palpitation Of the
heart toward 30. The inherited literary
bent of the mothers family took in him
tho form of graphOmania. He married an
sweet natured woman, not of
Italian blood and died at 40, leaving a
SON and daughter of tender years
Here began the third generation. The
daughter was a girl of rare intellectual
gifts and amazing confidence in her own
Judgment Premature old age overlook
her at 20. She, too, was graphomaniac,
and before she was % years old she had
written many romanccS, for the most part
pOliticO- religious. She wrote with no wish
Tor fame, but merely to put into words her
opinions and conceptions of life. She re-
fused indeed to seek publisher for her
The brother before reaching
he age of Is, had written many romances,
iramas poems and sociological studies.
He, too, was graphomaniac, and he pub
ished nothing save few occasional poems
Of four Others in the third generation one
was gifted, but he became drunkard. A
second showed no marked anomaly, and "a
.hird was unintelligert and abnormal.
Thus the marriage of d., the scion of a
FORMAL and stupid race, with the brilliant
)ut tainted T., gave to the world a strange
succession of brilliant eccentrics, hypo-
mattoids and drunkards.