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102 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦ ' W ¦ 'I ' I Form In The The Qualities...
It is unquestionably one of the most important advantages conferred on society bthe seclusion to which imbeciles and
lunatics are consigned y that they are thus-prevented from perpetuating their disease , on a future generation . When such
precautionary measures are either not adopted or negligently carried out ? the consequences are very lamentable . *
bring Moreover about , insanity inadequatel , we y know comprehended at least that as are they the are causes of a which
complicated and reflex nature . No amount of ill-humour will break _u leg , or develope tubercles on the lungs , but unchecked
indulgence of a suspicious bad temper , or a morose vindictive humour , will in the long ruiirarely fail to affect the brainand
con' versely , brain , disease _, perverts the temper as much as it , destroys the intellect .
The saddest feature of insanity is , that it is exceptional in its misery . No person would relinquish the idea of marriage on
account of a tendency to heart or liver disease , or even actual organic affection of the kindbecause even under such
circumstances , a life may be happy , and useful , and even long and tolerablfree from hysical- suffering . With an inherited
scrofulous y constitution p , more scruples might be justly entertained as in strumous subjects consumption and insanity are easily
developed . But in consumption , though a terrible and fatal maladthe patient retains hope and a spirit of cheerfulness in
a very y extraordinary , degree , and to the last an unclouded state of the mental faculties generally triumphs over the disease—at
something any rate , we else know than the this wors —it t— means it is but not death only . the But loss insanit of heal y th is
and of liberty , but of happiness and friends , for it is a special symptom of madness that by it the relations of life are inverted ,
and those who have been the dearest and most beloved , are , in the vast majority of casesthose whom the madman most
suspects and abhors . It is a , grave , without the rest of the dead , and stands alone and above all other diseases in its exceeding
desolation . The happiest thing which can befal a confirmed lunatic , is to sink into the apathy of forgetfulness , unless indeed
it be to die . f * Sad and painful examples of this kind are recorded in the Annual Reports ¦
to of second the General report Boar p . 198 d of ) . Commissioners A squinting , hideous in Lunacy , dirty , for , drunken Scotland imbecile ( Vide A , has pp . borne to different , fathers , three illegitimate children , all of whom were idiots
( App . to third report , p . 240 _^ . " I have reported on thirty-four imbecile and idiotic 217 women mentions , who five have fatuous borne illegitimate the illeg children itimate . " offspring App , second of fatuous report ,
p mothers . , . Dr . Mitchell also speaks persons of , an idiotic woman , who , before she was fifteen f Recovered , bore an patients illegitimate have child admitted , also an that idiot they . _neyer quite believed in the surrounded and in
general glories , by there which is little they reason wished to to suppose believe that they the were insane rind satisfaction ; in their delusions ,
102 Hereditary Transmission Of Qualities...
102 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1864, page 102, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041864/page/30/
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