Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1915-07-30
An Incident
OF Heredity
By DWIGHT NORWOOD

marriage to lady in whose
family there are traces Of insanity. Do
you consider me justified in marrying
her under the circumstancesT
mot If the insanity is hereditary.
There Is great difference between in
sanity from q temporary cause and
from an organic trouble that may be
transmitted from parent to child. l do
not consider that any one suffering 1
from an ailment which is hereditary 1
has a right to marry. Your question
suggests story involving case which (
came within my professional expert
ence.
Zone day a young man named Sever I
Ance came to consult me as to a case !
similar to yours. He had recently been I
married and all had gone happily till |
one day ON returning to his home from
business he found his wife lying on the
bed indisposed. She seemed drowsy,
and, suggesting that she try to get a
nap, he took the evening paper to a
window and sat down to read.
presently he heard her tossing
about on the bed and, looking at her
from his paper, saw that, though
asleep or at least doing, there was an
undulatory motion about her that sug-
gested the movement Of snake. He
had awakened her and asked her If
she had not been dreaming, but she
said she had not been conscious during
her nap and felt much better for it.
Nevertheless the young husband
seemed to me to have been much
shocked at what he had seen. Were
it not for this would have concluded
that what he had seen was the work
ing Of his wife's nerves uncontrolled
during slumber. l gave him this cause
in order to reassure him, but 1t did not.
However, since l could give him no
other comfort, he left me, much de-
jected.
Not long after his visit, taking up
newspaper, l saw notice that he had
left his house few days before and
had not been heard from since. The
police had been notified, and an alarm
had been sent out. Fears were enter
tanned that he had met with foul play,
since the day before his disappearance
he had drawn large sum Of money
from his bank.
His visit to me, the story he told and
his depression led me to suspect that
he was suffering from some nervous
or mental trouble, and | inclined to
the belief that what he had told me
IL. nf n q.
eased brain. l did not see how
would be justified in making known
nv suspicious without mentioning the
J. cause, and that did not care to do.
Severance never turned up, and NJ
probable cause was ever given for hi'
= disappearance. When several years
:. had passed his wife gave him up TO
. dead, believing that he had been muir
dered for the money he had with him
Four years after his disappearance sh
>. married again. and as fate would hay
, It her second husband was patient
mine. | did not know that he was t
n marry Mrs. Severance, and l was sal
isfied that had not known 1t, becaus
n should have been troubled as to VIVA
I should do in the matter, for | wa
undecided what to attribute her mrs
] husbands disappearance to-
Within a few months after my p
tient's-Hammond' s-marriage he can
into nv office one day with Wi
look In his eyes and told me story Sill
q liar to the one Severance had told III
:. He had had disagreement with II
p wife. during which she had becon
d very much excited. During the Wit
g. perations she had hurled at him Ii
L ewes had glittered like those OF an a
gry serpent Her appearance durn
thn trouble had made such horrll
x impression upon him that he W
), afraid he would lose his mind l
i'll asked me to give him sedative.
IS, Here was q worse complication
y. mo than Severance had brought
d FOR was not sure whether Sew
n ance's experience had been an manu-
nation occasioned by disordered br'
or had been caused by some pecul
Is condition In his life. But l dal
~ NOT tell Hammond this, for 1t would
- sure to make a wreck OF MIN.
no recourse but to say to him that
must have been suffering from so
7 nervous weakness. Instead or CIV
him a drug | advised him to go OF
trim, but on no account to take
wife with him.
rel He took my advice as to the TRIP,
naver returned from it. News OF
having fallen over precipice in 81
. cortland was sent to her over the oce
To-! but I have always suspected that
arranged for its transmission INNS
One thing confirmed this susplc
" his body was never found.
Two years after having becom
hvnothetical double widow the LAD.
p This case died. l confess l was
FL Iipyed. There was now no fur
chance of any more of my clients
NJ rving her. Soon after her death II
some Investigations as TO her
through the physician who after
= her. | called on him and gave MIN
= experience of her two husbands Us
on to me. He accepted theory
q him and promised If possible to
~ FACTS that would confirm it.
He found an aunt of the sup)e'
4oll him that her s