The Red Cloud chief., 1901-09-06
HEREDITY AND HEALTH
the VIEWS OF FAMILY DOCTORS
AND LIFE INSURANCE MEN.

SkoEV /"
. Not q Bacterial Disease.
Upon few questions have medical
men been 80 divided as upon the posi- |
bility Of inherlting disease. Opinion
on this subject has undergone much
change within the last fifteen or
twenty years, but even to-day doc
tors are not unanimous OH the sub
ject. Then. again, there IL another
class of scientific people who thco-
ri2e regarding the phenomena OF phys
ical life and conduct laboratory cxper-
imcnts. These men call themselves
biologists. and they are unqucstion-
ably a learned lot. Yet their conclu-
sions are often different from those
reached by the physicians. In gen
cral. 1t may DC said that biologists
incline to accept Weissmann's doc
trine that acquired traits cannot DO
transmitted to progeny, while medi.
,cal,inen i. though sdixferang .asAt O'1etails,
have more or less confidence In the
possibility OF inhcriting physical in.
firmities.
The discovery OF bacteria as the
cause OF most maladics has Ind n
revolutionary Influence upon the old
doctrine Of Inheritance regarding tn.
berculosis. Once It was believed that
q whole family was hopelessly doomed
II either OF the parents died of this dis.
ease. We have ripped that notion
up the back" said the medical ad-
wiser Of a leading insurance company
the, Other. day. .s';Rhthisis lisa contag-
ious disease. and results from associa-
ton with n victim of that trouble. ]
should sooner look for 1t In the hus.
band than In the child Of "a woman
who was thus affected"
The doctor who passes OF the appli.
cations made to another company put
the case less radically. He attached
some Importance to the fact that par
ents had died of consumption. Even
granting that IL IL purely n contagious
malady. offspring sometimes appear to
inherit a susceptibility or an abnor.
mally low power Of resistance to 1t. II
is asserted that even when the chill.
dren Of tuberculosis parents are wide
.lyrseparated In their youth. and grow
| up apart, a larger percentage Of them
| develop tho disease than that Of other
peoples children. TIC preponderance
In not marked. perhaps, but there are
| those who believe that It exists. This
| same expert remarked, however. that
| formerly his company did not regard
a man reasonably safe from inherited
consumption until he was forty years
| old. whereas they would take him now
with little hesitation Mt t~hlrty.fve. II
lie then showed no signs Of the nal.
ady. Both theory and practice are un-
degOing slow changes on this point,
apparently.
Insanity is not regarded rs n bacter-
ial disease. and yet II has Il physical
basis. The brain undergocs local or
general changes In structure. The dis.
order cannot he acquired by assocla.
ton with other victims of II, but many
experts believe In the possibility Of In
heriting n tendency to insanity and Its
first cousin. epilepsy. Doctors rccog-
nizc what they call the 'insane dia-
tlcsis'' or Il predisposition to insanity,
/ anu tllth tuht " Spou sVut VI StOeh IA
the notion that this Is an inherited
weakness. Most life insurance com
paniGs discriminate sharply against
applicants whose ancestry exhibits
two or three cases Of insanity. or one
OF insanity ana II of epilepsy.
Cancer is another afiiiction which
was once believed to be transmissible
to offspring, but that view OF II Is now
almost entirely abandoned: Occasion.
ally there are cases Of death from
this In mother or father and son
only n few years apart. But, sugges-
tive as such q coincidence is, doctors
do not all interpret 1t alike. One Of the
leading life insurance companies OF
this country. which puts its terms uT
where consumption OF insanity ap
pears in the parents or grandparents
history. ignores cancer except in The
applicant himself.
These are the three diseases to whicl
the most attention Is given by these
companies in considering the inflrm
tiles OF parents and grandparents
Still. It Is asserted that lack of long
evity. Bright's disease ana Othel
signs OF weakness appear to be char
actcristic of some families and not Of
others. There is little evidence of tn,
inheritance Of a predisposition to apo
pleXy. Indeed. this trouble. which IL
due ,primarilS to n weakness Of tn
walls Of the arteries. has been fOunt
TO be about equally characteristic o
persons whose weight Is abnormal.
great ana those who are nbn0rmalE
light.
A great deal hts been written OF al
eohOlism aud hcredity. Some Of III
expressions ON this subject are ex
travagant and misleading. II IL par
ticularly interesting to note whethe
drunkenness or other moral failing
develop In parents before or afte
their children were born. In the lat
ter case heredity would seem 10 affOr,
an inadequate explanation Of bad hal
its or disease. Nevertheless. there 1
much evidence that in one way or an