Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-06-19
INSANITY AND HEREpl1Y

n .
IN me recently printed number of the
Bulletin of the Iowa Board of Control
Is a paper by DR.. Anne Burnat on a
study OF heHeditS among women. in The
state hospital for insane a Clarinda.
In this article she seeks To show from
statistics Of the hospital that heredity
furnishes predisposing faint OF men
( TAI trouble. Out of a possible lD2 pa
tents the history of only ixafurnished
a negative answer To The question Of
possible inherited tendency to the dis
ease In flfty-eight cases the question
was ignored. while all the responses
she found forty-tWo patients, or Al per
cent of the total. with the admitted
tendency Probably half of the fifty
eight who Ignored it could be thus
classed
OF the forty-two, four were taken
home unimproved: fifteen We're dis
charged recovered. 50 that hope is pos
sibie; four died and eighteen are stir
in the hospital. These are only cases
for one year.
She notices that at present there are
present in the hospital four cases of in
sanity in husband and wife. In one
case the husband is an epileptic, and
the wife has a marked heredity of in
sanity, and they have nine children in
the outside world. two of Which are al
ready county charges is a deplora-
BILE fact that many of this class are
prolific breeders.
on the question OF heredity She says
further:
THAT heredity is@a most important
factor in the causatien of mental dis.
ease is beyond question. ToEquete NJ.
i Regis. .Heredity is without 8contradic-
ton the most powerful and important
factor of all the causes Of insanity.
lSraepelin, too, emphasizes the fact and
comments upon the unanmity Of opin-
ion on the subject. All alienists agree
in the matter. and many place the per-
ecentage high. Kraepelin places it al
least from 60 toI0 per cent. Regis says:
Because OF not accepting hereditS in
its widest and truest signifcation. and
restricting it more on less to cases of
direct transmission of insanity itself.
there was some disagreement as TO the
exact frequency of this cause of alien
alton. In reality, we may admit with
Marco that we find some antecedent in
nine-tenths of all the cases. Indeed
SO marked is the heredity IN many in
stances that the same form of insanity
will appear in the children at the same
age that it appeared in the parents
This occurs bly, in cases of marked
suicidal impulse. Several such cases
have eentreated in this hospital. In a
paper read before the Medico- Psycho-
: logical Association. London, in 1885, Mr.
j. f. Brisco gave9it as his opinion, after
VII q careful study Of the subject, that 80
per cent of the insane have heredity
of insanity. Spitzka takes strong
4 ground on the question of heredity. Ho
calls attention to the influence of hered-
ity in the causation Of degeneracy of
different degrees and types and makes
most interesting comments on the
same. The chapter on that subject in
DR.. SpitZka's work on Insanity is we'll
worth careful reading by any one in
Z terested in heredity in its relation to
insanity and degeneracy.
some one mas SAID that there is a
seeming tendency for the transmission
of all peculiarities and characteristics
Il of the parents to the offspring. Inheri-
lance IL the rule, non-inheritance the
exception. And that this is true Of
morbid as of natural conditions, and in
no pathological state is 1t more true
! than in morbid mental characteristics.
1t Is urged against such nereditY that
a mir nj OF 4or "a f,1o
mlssible. But the acceptance OF such a
b beiief would make sad havoc in the
Theory os evolution. 70 be sure. 1.-THE
schti dren re a insane parent may not
IN