Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The influence of heredity on idiocy / by Martin W. Barr. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![IO In my own examination of 1,044 idiots, I find but 3-J- per cent. On the other hand, consanguineous marriages where there is the least neurotic taint must always be marked by deterioration of mental power. Naturally, if the taint exist in both parents, the force is but intensi- fied, and idiots are likely to be produced with peculiar- ities accentuated. A notable example of this is found in Switzerland, where, among the people secluded from the outer world in mountain fastnesses, intermarriage has been going on for centuries. Here, by repeated inter- marrying, neuroses are preserved intact and idiocy ripens. Among my own records I find an interesting casej which I present herewith : J. F., excitable idiot, born of cousins-german, in' whose families were marked neuroses. Mother, always] delicate, and finally died of phthisis. Father, emotional and silly to the verge of imbecility. The following is an account of their offspring: The family, a large one, numbered eleven in all. Four died in early childhood' (diseases unknown), three living, of whom I have no history, and four of whom I have records. First born,j female, deaf and dumb ; second born, female, epileptic ; third born, male, idiot; and the eighth born (patient), idiot. Frequently idiocy appears as the outward and visibly sign of the mental deterioration of a family where inter- marriage has been frequent, especially one that has been noted for its intellectual qualities, and, according tJ Griesinger,8 it is a mark of degeneration in a race whose blood has stagnated, as, for example, in the Asylum ol L., where many of the proudest names in England are borne by drivelling idiots. Esquirol says that it is simply impossible to enumerl ate the idiots in the noble families of France, among whom intermarriage is frequent, and also among the Roman Catholic families of England and Scotland. We have considered to-night, not possibilities nofj chimerical maybes, but grim facts gathered through, years at much cost and pains, by patient, earnest,! thoughtful, philosophic minds. Let us come up from - their past with the lamp of experience they have placed in our hands to study the present and verify their con- clusions. What are the signs that tell of this enemy, who shall' Mental Pathology, p. 349.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24761709_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
