Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1901-09-12
HEREDITY AND HEALTH
THE VIEWS OF FAMILY DOCTORS
AND LIFE INSURANCE MEN.


Modern Theories as to the Possibility of
Inheriting Disease-The New Belief in
Regard to Tuberculosis-Insanfty is
Not Bacterial Disease.
Upon few questions have medical
men been so divided as upon the possi-
bility Of inheriting 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 on the sub
Ject- Then, again, there is another
class Of scientific people who theo-
rize regarding the phenomena OF phys
ical life and conduct laboratory exper-
1ments. These men call themselves
biologists, and they are unquestion-
ably learned lot Yet their conclu-
sions are often different from those
reached by the physicians. In gen
eral, it may be said that biologists
incline to accept Weissmann's doc
trine that acquired traits cannot be
transmitted to progeny, while medi-
cal men, though differing as to details,
have more Or less confidence in the
possibility of inheriting physical in
firmities. H. s-.s,s q
The discovery OF bacteria as the
cause. of most maladies has had a
revolutionary influence upon the old
doctrine Of Inheritance regarding tu-
bercu1osis. Once it was believed that
a 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 leading insurance company
the other day. s'Phthisis is a contag-
1ous disease, and results from associa-
ton with victim Of that trouble.
should sooner look for it in the hus-
band than in the child Of a woman
who was thus affected
. The doctor who passes on 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 it is purely a contagious
malady, offspring sometimes appear to
inherit a susceptibility or an abnor-
mally low power of resistance to it. 1t
is asserted that even when the chill
dren Of tuberculosis parents are wide
~ separated in their youth, and grow
up apart, a larger percentage of them
eevrl~-r as-s>-.----
is not marked, perhaps, but there are
those who believe that it exists. This
or.3yn hot
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 at thirty-fve, if
he 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 as bacter-
ial disease, and yet it has a physical
basis. The brain undergoes local or
general changes in structure. The dis
order canpot be acquired by associa-
ton with other victims Of it, but many
experts believe in the possibility of in
heriting tendency to insanity and its
first cousin, epilepsy. Doctors recog-
nize what tney call the insane dia-
thesis or predisposition to insanity,
and then take a good deal Of stock in
the notion that this is an inherited
weakness. Most life insurance com
panies discriminate sharply against
applicants whose ancestry exhibits
of i,,co nf{
of insanity and one of epilepsy.
| Cancer is another afhiction which
was once believed to be transmissible
to offspring, but that view Of it is now
almost entirely abandoned. Occasion
| ally there are cases Of death from
| this cause in mother or father and sor
only few years apart. But, sugges
tive as such a coincidence is, doctors
do not all interpret it alike. One Of the
leading life insurance companies Of
this country, which puts its terms VI
where consumption or insanity ap
| pears in the parents or grandparents
| history, ignores cancer except In th'
| applicant himself.
These are tue three diseases to whic]
the most attention is given by thes'
companies in considering the infrm
| tiles Of parents and grandparents
Still, it Is asserted that lack Of long
evity, Bright's disease and othe
signs of weakness appear to be char
acteristic of some families and not o
others There is little evidence Of tn
Inheritance OF predisposition to ape
plexy. Indeed, this trouble, which /
due primarily to a weakness Of tn
walls Of the arteries, has been foun
to be about equally characteristic Q
persons whose weight is abnormall
great and those who are abnormall
light.
A great deal has been written Of a
coholism and heredity. Some of tn
expressions on this subject are e1
| travagant and misleading It is pal
ticularly interesting to note whethe
drunkenness or other moral failing
develop in parents before or afte
their children were born. In the Ia
! ter case heredity would seem to affor