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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![is coiitiiiually supplying- degenei-acy ? Is it a contiiiiious fresli generation of poor types consec|uent upon tlie pathological factors of modern social conditions^ or is it that natural selection and survival of the fittest are less effectual in weeding out poor types ? How far is medical science, legis- lation and collective responsibility replacing family responsibility thereby interfering- with natural selection and survival of the fittest ? Let us view the question from a physiological standpoint. I will take the male germs which are continually being produced in countless millions for the greater ]iart of a man^s life. Each germ is the bearer of an extraordinary specific potential energy; it produces effects far more complex and wonderful than the emanations of a similar sized speck of radium. The reproduc- tive organs that produce these germs are contained in the body, nourished by the same blood and lymph, and although one cannot but admit that physiology proves that Nature has protected in a marvellous way the brain, which is essential for the preservation of the individual, and the reproduc- tive organs, which are essential for the preservation of the species, and moreover has established, by subtile bio-chemical influences in the blood, a correlation of functions of the two, nevertheless as the brain suffers in the production of specific energy, as shown by failure of its higher functions by prolonged poisoning of the blood, so the male germ-cells, which are continually building up the male-germs, out of constituents taken from the blood, may, by analogy, suffer in their specific energy and vitality. If this devitalising agency is carried on in several successive generations, and especially if reinforced by a similar loss of specific energy in the female germs from similar and other causes, weakl}- types of offspring will be produced, nnd these weakly types, being more suscep- tible to infective diseases, will be cut off early by invading microbes, especially by tuberculosis. But, you may ask, is the transmitted lack of vital energy generally, enough to account for mental degeneracy ? Mental energy is mainly used up in the exercise of will-power and attention in acquiring knowledge and making new adaptations to environment and controlling and regulating the instincts, appetites and desires to tlie best advantage of the individual in the struggle for existence in the social life. Now a healthy mind can only exist in a healthy body, and the proper storage of mind energy and its liberation, as well as recuperation neces- sary for a well-balanced mind, are largely de})endent upon a good and virile constitution ; whereas the higher functions of the mind on the side of feeling, viz. imagination and the affective nature, are specifically inherited, and more dependent iqioii an inborn variation from the normal average](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28060908_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
