Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-16

adopted throughout lno country, tne
statistics of disease, insanity and crime
would very shortly show rapidly de-
croasing ratio instead Of n rapidly in
creasing one, as at present. 1t is very
probable however, that such legislation
will not become general-perhaps not
even partial--in the near future.
Somewhat similar restraints have
been placed upon marriage in Ger
many, but these principally apply to
the sobriety and habits of the prospec.
tive husband and his ability to support
a family. The right of the state to i'm
pose restrictions upon marriage, when
the offspring would probably become a
public charge or menace to society, is
undeniablc However the general pub
lie would regard such proscriptive leg
islation. it would most certainly be bit
terly opposed by those who would be
adversely affected by it. 1t has been
stated that if children have any rights
at all they have the right to be born
healthy.
1t is not consoling to reflect that a
large proportion of mankind starts on the
race Of life very heavily handicapped.
The risks which would attend life even
Hndoy the most favorable auspices are
obvious enough, but with the condi-
tions prevailing the surprise is that hui
manity makes the good showing it does
upon the stage Of life.
Man. physically and mentally, may be
regarded as the complex resultant Of q
stream of inherited tendencies. Some
of those tendencies are good, others are
bad, but whatever their character may
be they largely predetermine the fate
of the individual. The liability to con-
tract diseases of both mind and body is
frequently born with one into the
world. and not only is this so, but the
disease itsolf may DO transmitted to the
offspring. Fortunately the constant eff
fort of nature is to mitigate the evil or
Danish it utterly from the system. Were
it not SO the human race would have
been long ago extinct, or human life,
as with the lower animals, ould have
become regulated not by intellige:. CO
acting wisely or unwisely, but ty the
force of instructive, irresistible i'm
pulses directed by nature for the con-
tinuance of life and the vari Gus phases
of its manifestation.
The tuberculous. scrOfulous and other
taints are often inherited from parents,
and even in cases where specific di-
atheists is not communicated the cOnsti-
tutional liability to disease generally
may be. In the causatiou Of insanity
heredity plays a most important role.
Professor William Pepper of the medic
al department of the University OF
Pennsylvania states that 6eredity is re-
sponsible for rs per cent of all cases OF
insanity. DR.. A jacob. professor OF
diseases of children in the medical de
partment Of Columbia university, New
York city, writes that 1.-The same forms
Of mental diseases occurring among
adults are also seen in the young, anG
that in this heredity plays an important
role, as does also inebriety. But even il
instances where the special phase OF
mental arrangement has not been trans
mitted to the children from affected
parents the predisposition to such all
ments invariably is SO. Persons inherit
ing such tendencies with due care anC
freedom from disturbing causes, may
pass through life without giving any
aberrant signs, but otherwise they may
be wrecked mentally by cares and wor
ries or by calamities which could b'
sustained by those more sanely consti
tuted without their minds being injuri
ously affected at all.
That heredity plays an almost equally
important part in the production o
crime is also undoubted. If | may bc
permitted to use medical term in {
nonmedical sense, children rarely in
herit an intellectual or a moral dia
thesis. Piety is but seldom transmit
ted, and when offspring display such /
trait the fact can be attributed rather
to education and associations than tC
any natural bias in this direction. Al
immoral faint il more apt to be inherit
ed than good one. and that degree o
intelligence required for supplying tn,
physical needs of the body and perpetu
atng life seems TO be the utmost tina
nature demands in the mind. Thi
opens up wide field for speculation.
NEIL MACDONALD