Laws Of Hereditary Descent
152 Art. XII.? :Author: Nathan Allen, M.D., Lowell, Massachusetts, Commissioner in Lunacy to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. When Jeliovah issued His commands in the Decalogue, not only to the Israelites, but to His creatures in all coming- time, saying ; ? I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation,” it was intended that there should be some meaning in that visitation. When the laws of the human system are correctly and fully understood, it will be seen that this ordinance is not all a dead letter.
The term ” iniquity,” as here used, has a broad significa- tion, including the consequences or penalties of each and every violated law, whether that law be expressed in the revealed command of God, or stamped by the same Almighty power upon the human constitution. In the fulfilment of this com- mand or decree, whatever divine influences or agencies may be brought into operation in other respects, it is positively certain that by the fixed laws of hereditary descent, the iniquities of the fathers, in a variety of forms, are visited upon the children, even to the fourth generation. We might speak of the effects of a bad example, of evil instruction, and a train of corrupt influences in a great variety of ways, whereby the iniquity of the parents comes upon their children* but there is another channel in which the effects of this visitation are more direct, positive, and powerful than these outward agen- cies. The former may be more easily overcome or corrected but the latter are far more difficult to change, at least for the’ better.
While we have had instructions on this subject for thou- sands of years, and still have from the pulpit, from the press, and in many other ways, but little, comparatively, is said or written on the direct ‘physical relation of parent and child. When the laws of physiology are fully and correctly under- stood in this respect, they will throw new light upon the duties and responsibilities of the parental relation. In fact it is impossible to realise or conceive at present the value or the amount of knowledge which will yet be brought from this source to bear practically upon all the relations&of life. Only a few suggestions can be made in a short article?that, too, bearing simply on one relation. No language can express the importance of transmitting a sound healthy body. It is the Lest capital which any human body can possess. It can be used or turned to more valuable account than any other possession. A large proportion of the weaknesses and diseases of the body are transmitted?that is, the liabilities, the pre- dispositions, the seeds of disease. What multitudes go through life racked with pains and sufferings, crippled and disabled in all their efforts by reason of inherited weaknesses! Many, too, on this account, sink down into an early grave ; while to others is allotted, perhaps, a long life of feebleness and suffering ! The more thoroughly the primary causes of disease, toge- ther with the laws of birth and life, are understood, the more are the starting-points, the original sources, the mainsprings of disease, found to exist in the body itself. As pathology is comparatively a new science, it is difficult to determine with exactness what proportion of disease thus originates, but it would not be surprising if one-tliird or one-halt can be traced directly or indirectly to this source. 1
So well established is this fact, that there is a large class of disease called hereditary, and one of the first inquiries made by a physician called to a new patient is what were the com- plaints or diseases of his parents or ancestois. e ac should be stated, too, that these hereditary diseases aie very difficult to cure, and when apparently cured they frequently return, having their seat or originating source m the constitution itself. In one direction these transmitted effects are most striking as well as afflicting-viz. in mental derangement.
The fact is well established that in one quarter or one third of all cases of insanity there may be found instances or traces of the disease among the ancestors of the patient. And if the exact truth could be ascertained, we believe that, m a much larger proportion than that, there would be found some abnor- malities-predisposing causes or strong proclivities that way. There is another direction where these transmitted qualities become very striking, viz. in propensities bent on crime. In jails and penitentiaries it has been known for a 0?8” time that desperate criminals had, generally speaking, a bad parental or ancestral record; that the seeds of vice and crime were trans- mitted from one generation to another. So well understood is this fact that the saying has become proverbial that the children of such-and-such pal’ents will become bad chaiacteis, criminals, go to jail, or be hung. A noted fact of this kind has lately been going the newspaper rounds, headed ]Iaigaret, the Mother of Criminals.” The facts were these: An agent of the New York Prison Association, in visiting a certain jail in that state, found six persons bearing so striking a resemblance, it led him to inquire who they were. After spending much time in tracing back their history and genealogy for several genera- tions, he found they originated from a woman of bad character, and that in all the families originating from the same source there had been 120 criminals, who had received 140 years’ imprisonment. Besides these criminals there had been connected with these families several hundred paupers and offenders of law, all of whom had cost the public near a million of dollars ! If a careful inquiry were made into the history and genealogy of all the inmates of our prisons, jails, houses of correction, and almshouses, we should find a vast amount of poverty, vice, and crime which can be traced back, directly or indirectly, to in- herited sources. In fact, the researches of modern physiology are showing every day, more and more, what a powerful influence inherited qualities have upon these classes. The question is beginning to be raised, if we are ever to check the increase of vice and crime, must we not go back to their primary sources?dry up the springs, purify the fountain ; or, in other words, as a means of protection and prevention, make a proper application of the laws of inheritance.
It may be said that criminals and the insane compose so small a portion of the community, that the subject is not deserving much attention; but, if the law of inheritance applies to abnormal developments of character, to flagrant wrongs and outrages, it applies equally to all the minor follies, vices, evils, and wrongs. Not a single parental relation takes place but that the seeds of good or evil tendencies are sown. If the animal nature is predominant and most active, or the intellectual or the moral, such will be the prevailing type of character in the offspring.
Not only the form of the body, the general features of the countenance, and the temperament, or the particular kind of organisation are communicated; but the leading elements or groundwork of character. If certain propensities are very predominant and active, inclined strongly to sensuality and licentiousness, if an ungovernable temper, or bad disposition, morose, irritable, sullen, exist, the inherited effects will surely be seen. If naturally there is a strong inclination to idleness, to waste and extravagance, or, on the other hand, to acquisi- tiveness, penuriousness, and meanness, these qualities will be more or less communicated.
If the blood has been poisoned or constitution impaired by the use of alcohol, tobacco, or any other narcotic or stimulant, the effects will surely be transmitted. There is no question but much of the dissipation and intemperance so prevalent at the present day may be traced back to this source.
In canvassing this whole subject it should be borne in mind that it is the real nature, the inner life of the individual, where the law of transmission particularly applies?not to the profession oue makes, or to the outward character, or even what one always thinks of himself. If we are here misled by ignorance or deceive ourselves, the relation between parent and child still exists, and the penalties or effects of violated law must necessarily be transmitted. If we mistake not there are responsibilities and obligations connected with this relation which parents do not begin to realise, and for a better under- standing and more enlightenment there is need of gathering up all the lights possible from science and experience. Neither should the pulpit or the press be silent in a matter which so vitally affects human welfare.
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