The evolution and dissolution of the sexual instinct / by Charles Féré.

  • Charles Féré
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The evolution and dissolution of the sexual instinct / by Charles Féré. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    90/394 (page 60)
    It is astonishing to find that invalids, madmen, and idiots are rare among savages and barbarians. It is not because none such are ever born ; but they perish through want of care, if they are not deliberately made away with. The sympathy of civilised peoples encourages one cause of misery by favouring the survival and reproduction of a great number of degenerates, constituting a social burden which is increased by the tendency to lenient treatment of criminals. This sympathy also shows itself in regard to sexual anomalies. The conditions that trouble the development of the embryo result most often in producing general delays or partial stoppages. Anomaly appears to be a retarded function. Generally speaking, embryos which are partially abnormal are in a state of retardation. Still, under the same conditions some embryos are not only neither retarded nor abnormal, but are notably advanced in growth and size ; others, which exhibit partially arrested development, show a general development above the average. In fact, the troubling factors provoke a tendency to variation1 which is often degenerative, but may also be progressive. The same thing happens in the dissolution of heredity amidst pathological families. The progeny is often defective, but sometimes also above the normal. Though the neuropathic nature of genius and talent may be debateable, one can at any rate scarcely deny their family connection with neuropathy. Degeneration is the sign of a tendency to variation, which also produces supernormal persons for wdiom an important part in the evolution of 1 Ch. Féré. Faits relatifs à la. tendance à la variation sous Vinfluence du changement de milieu, (C. R. Soc. de Biol., 1896, p. 790.)—Influence du repos sur les effets de Pexpositio?i préalable aux vapeurs d'alcool avant l incubation de Vœuf de poule, {ibid., 1899, p. 255.)