The Coolidge examiner., 1932-07-29
BAD-TEMPERED MAN
CALLED TO ACCOUNT
English Writer Makes Lu-
cid Comments.

1t is common knowledge that when
| people lost their temper they feel
that other people are to blame
Those possessed of bad tempers, 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
| livers. 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 If he
| blames it the suspicion tends to lie
against him that, in days PAST, he
failed in the duty of abstemiousness
1t 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 Galton. He found that in
% families in which both parents
were bad-tempered the number of
/ good-tempered children was only 4 per
cent, while really bad-tempered chill
dren amounted to 80 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
child has before it an awful example
which might well 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
substitute for wayward 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 fee
from his presence. Soon they will
say comfortably to themselves, he
will be giving his grandfather's men,
ory a 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 "coeficients of irritability"
and lays 1t down that we have all
our flash-point of anger or irritation,
but in some the flash-point of irrita-
tiOn 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 became irritable
and whining in the face of disaster;
the cantankerous wife of an unsuc-
cessful husband may be transformed
into a 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 profitably be left
London Times