White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-07-28
BAD-TEMPERED MAN
CALLED TO ACCOUNT
English Writer Makes Luz
cid Comments.

people lost their temper they feel
that other people are to blame.
Those possessed of bad lempers, in
consequence, tend to lead lonely lives
and may even be forced to accept
the ignominious idea that their out
bursts are due to their brains or
Hvers. But experience has shown
that the relief to be obtained by
blaming ones own bodily organs is
not comparable with that which pro-
ceeds from blaming ones neighbor.
A man may not be responsible for
the behavior of his liver. but II he
blames 1t the suspicion tends to lie
against him that, in days past. he
failed in the duty of abstemiousness.
II Is good news, therefore, that a
case has been made out for the
theory that one inherits bad temper
from ones ancestors. The evidence,
If not perhaps conclusive, is good
enough to satisfy an angry man. 1t
is set forth in the Kings College
Hospital Gazette. but derives from
Francis Cation. He found that in
Is families in which botn parents
were bad-tempered the number of
goodtempered children was only per
cent. while really bad-tempered chill
dren amounted to So per cent. In
the case of families where both par
ents were good-tempered. on the con-
trary. only 80 per cent of the chill
dren were really good-tempered. All
the others, except 10 per cent who
were bad-tempered, showed no spe-
cial tendency either way.
Doctor Still. who contributes the
article, points out that child who
lives with bad-tempered parents Is
handicapped from the beginning. and
that no doubt is true; but such a
child has before It an awful example
which might we'll tend to direct its
mind into gentler ways. That its
mind is not often directed thus is wit
ness of the strength of heredity.
1t is comforting to find that the
Lancet endorses the case against an
cestors so far as to offer them as 4
substitute for hayward or backslid
ing organs, and that, further, even
the faults of such organs may be
laid at the door Of heredity. This
brings the bad-tempered man back
at once into association with his fell
lows. When his face reddens toward
explosion his children or his friends
will feel no longer creeping over them
that uneasy suspicion Of their guilt
which before caused them to flee
from his presence. Soon they will
say comfortably to themselves. he
will be giving his grandfather's mem,
DRY bit of his mind.
Indeed, the bad-tempered man is
likely to become an object of the
sympathy which goes out to the de-
scendants of sheep-stealers and high.
way men. Doctor Still has much to
say about "coefficients of irritability"
and lays 1t down that we have all
our fash-point of anger or irritation
but in some the flash-point of irrita.
ton Is lower than the average" This
is no doubt true, but. as the Lancet
justly observes. "most of us have
encountered men who were cheer
fui while their affairs were in good
train. but who becam, irritable
and whining in the face of disaster;
the cantankerous wife of an unsuc.
cessful husband may be transformed
into delightful person by the re.
moval Of financial anxiety" Thus
the blame is spread evenly between
ancestors and stockholders. Upon
backs so broad and sturdy 1t may
reasonably and profitabl. be left
London Times.