Address on heredity in relation to insanity, given to the members of the London County Council, at the County Hall, S.W., on June 26th, 1912 / by F.W. Mott.
- Frederick Walker Mott
- Date:
- [1912?]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Address on heredity in relation to insanity, given to the members of the London County Council, at the County Hall, S.W., on June 26th, 1912 / by F.W. Mott. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![- ^ Address on Heredity in Relation to Insanity, given to the Members of the London County Council, at the County Hall, S.W., on June 26th, 1912. By F. W. Mott, M.D, F.R.S., F.H.C.W, PaflioIof/7st to the Lone!on County Asylums. ^Iv. Alfred O. Goodlicft, J.P., Chairman of the Aisyhimi^ Committee, ill the Chair. Mr. Chairman and Gei^tlemen,—Allow me to tliaiik you for doing me the honour of asking’ me to give an address upon the subject of heredity in relation to insanity. It is a subject which I have been studying for several years ; the more deeply I consider the question, the more I find there is to be done before we shall be safe in drawdng conclusions regarding practical questions dealing with the prevention of insauit}’, wdiich I shall touch upon more fully later. The subject of heredity, in its broad aspect, is one of mitional import- ance and interest, as it affects many social and legislative questions. The interest taken by the general public in heredity is a sign of social progress. People are beginning to recognise the truth of Prof. Arthur Thom souls dictum: ^^The present is the child of the past; our start in life is no haphazard affair, but is vigorously determined b} our parentage and ancestry ; all kinds of inborn characteristics may be transmitted from generation to generation.^’ All the modern doctrines of human heredity were foreshadowed by the ancient philosopher Lucretius, who, in ‘ De Rerum Naturie,’ sayLS : Some- times, too, the children may spring up like the grandfathers, and often reseml)le the forms of their grandfathers’ fathers, because the parents often keep concealed in their bodies many first beginnings mixed in many wuiys, which, first proceeding from the original stock, one father hands down to the next father, and then proceeding from these, Venus produces forms after a manifold chance, and repeats not only the features, but the voice and hair of forefathers, and the female sex equally springs from the fatlier’s and males go forth equalI3 from the mother’s body, since these ]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28060908_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
