The San Francisco call., 1897-11-07

( say that consumption is not always hered-
itary, nor does II sweep away whole tami-
lies. That is true. So cholera or yellow
fever spare some members of the families
they attack. Consumption will some
times pass over one or two children IN
diseased family. 1t viii sometimes skip a
generation. But the chances are thar 1t
: will Eeappear in some shape or other IN
the generation following, and that the
progeny of the children who escaped when
their brothers and sisters died Will fall
victims of the fate which their parents
eIuded. man may live down hard
reputation or an evil propensity, but 1t Is
rare that his race outlIves taint IN the
blood.
And it is not at all certain that the taint
which first showed itself in the shape of
tut terculosls in the ancestor viii not de-
velop IN some entirely different form in
his posterity. Hereditary taints may
crop up in variety of shapes. The ch Id
OF 4 consumptive may have sound lungs,
but be a victim TO alcoholism; the son Of
a drunkard may turn out thief; the OIL
spring OF the thief may be an id OF; with
him the family becomes extinct. At all
groups a variety OF brain and nerve dis
eases-insanity, epilepsy, hvsterla, scroll
ula, gout, malfOrmations, consumption,
ipsomanla-uIder one head and traces
them to one and the same source. He re-
CARDS them all as fruits OF i'm DerfeCl nu-
triton of the brain or nervous system.
He observes that all these ma aides may
be found alternating with each other in
given family, one member suffering from
one and another from another. He notes
a prudent father who consents to his
sons marriage with a pretty girl, the
daughter of confirmed drunkard or the
niece OF a woman in the luTatic a>ylum,
and who is nightly surprised when his
grandson turns out confirm ed black
guard, or his granddaughter takes to the
streets.
Moreau DIV ellis upon the same tendency
of heredity to distribute itself along vari-
ou. lines. He notes that the family of a
man who dies of consumption or convul-
sions do not necessarily show symptoms
of tuberculosis or epilepsy; they may be
idiotic paralytic or sCroiulous. To look
in each new generation for return of the
iden tical phenomena observed in the pre-
ceding one would indeed be to misappre-
hend the law of heredity. What the par
ent transmits is not his only particu ular
disease, but a constitutional defect which
may manifest itself in score OF different
forms. Herein lies the danger OF mar
riage with a person OF diseased stock
You never know wuere to look for sym p
toms OF the outbreak OF the recurrent
maladv.
Mandley furnishes instructive illustla-
tions of the tendency OF a constitutional
taint to vary its manipulatlons. He men
tions the case of tipsy brawler who was
killed IN fight IN Il tavern. His son be-
came Il paralytic; his son was hypo-
chondliac: his son was an idiot Accord
ing 10 this writer there are three classes
OF criminals: 1-Those who are driven tc
crime by want or adversely. 2-Ihose
who have in their natures a talnt OF crime
which may be corrected by favorable cir
cumstances. 3-Those of d radically bad
organization. These last he considers
practical irreclai lima bic. They inherited
Their organization by descent from a
tainted ancestry. and so far as it appears
the faint is ineraGicable and can only be
effaced by the extinction OF the family.
The last member, murderer or burglar,
may WORK out on the gallows a virus in
the blood which was nothing more than
phthisis in the ancestor.
DR.. Pau Jacoby has applied the prlnci-
pies of hercdity 10 the royal families OF
Europe. Passing over the houses OF Lam
caster and York, who were both degener-
ate, the former being fools and i'm beetles
/ and the latter knaves, he draws attention
TO the Tudors, who descended from Henry
VII, the murderer OF Warwick, the per-
secutor OF the Lollards, cut off by organic
disease in midhie; his son, Henry VIII.
was cruel bioodthlrsty and profigate; MS
sen died in boyhood. an unfaillng sign of
dcgeneracy; his daughters, Mary and
Elizabeth, were childless and unwhoe-
some The Stuart dynasty descended
from James Y OF Scotland, who
was insane; his grandson, James
/, was foolish, fanatical slut
terer; Charles was a periidious
coward; Charles II was a depraved epi-
leptlc; his brother James was vindictive.
cruel and nendacious; his daughters died
without offspring; the last OF the race, the