THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME FIFTY CENTS PER VOLUME I. THE LOVER BY SIR RICHARD STEELE II. THE WISHING-CAP PAPERS BY LEIGH HUNT III. FIRESIDE SAINTS MR. CAUDLE'S BREAKFAST TALK AND OTHER PAPERS BY DOUGLAS JERROLD IV. DREAMTHORPE BY ALEXANDER SMITH V. A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS BY CHARLES ELAM VI. BROKEN LIGHTS AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROS- PECTS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH BY FRANCES POWER COBBE VII. RELIGIOUS DUTY TREATING OF DUTY. OFFENCES. FAULTS AND OBLIGATIONS IN RELIGIOUS LIFE BY FRANCES POWER COBBE VIII. THE SCHOOLMASTER BY ROGER ASCHAM IX. THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION SIMPLIFIED BY JOSEPH Y. AND FANNY BERGEN X. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIRTH WITH 750 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES BY B. F. CLARK XI. THE GENTLEMAN BY GEORGE H CALVERT XII. EDUCATION BY HERBERT SPENCER PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS BY CHARLES ELAM, M.D., M.R.C.P. NEW EDITION BOSTON 1889 LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK ST. NEXT "THE OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE", CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM NEW YOUK 718 AND 720 BROADWAY ' BIO Lib " Each of us is only the footing-up of a double column of figures that goes back to the first pair. Every unit tells, and some of them are plus and some minus. If the columns don't add up right, it is commonly because we can't make out all the figures." " There are people who think that everything may be done, if the doer, be he educator or physician, be only called ' in season.' No doubt, but in season would often be a hundred or two years before the child was born ; and people never send so early as that." 0. W. HOLMES. " Of the two elements that compose the moral condition of mankind, our gen- eralized knowledge is almost restricted to one. We know much of the ways in which political, social, or intellectual causes act upon character, but scarcely anything of the laws that govern innate disposition, of the reasons and extent of the natural moral diversities of individuals or races. I think, however, that most persons who reflect upon the subject will conclude that the progress of medicine, revealing the physical causes of different moral predispositions, is likely to place a very large measure of knowledge on this point within our reach." LECKY'S History of European Morals," Vol. I. p. 166 PKEF ACE. THE following Essays are intended as a contribu- tion to the Natural History of those outlying regions of Thought and Action, whose domain is the " de- batable ground " of Brain, Nerve, and Mind. They are designed also to indicate the origin and mode of perpetuation of those varieties of organization, in- telligence, and general tendencies towards vice or virtue, which seem, on a superficial view, to be so irregularly and capriciously developed and distrib- uted in families, and amongst mankind. Subsid- iarily, they point to causes for the infinitely varied forms of disorder of nerve and brain, organic and functional, far deeper and more recondite than those generally believed in ; causes that are closely, if not inextricably, connected with our original na- ture on the one hand, and on the other with our social and political regulations. In attempting to make each Essay complete in itself, and yet an integral part of a connected series, it has occurred that there are many repetitions both of fact and formula. For these I must ask indul- gence, as being inevitable ; as well as for many other faults of composition and style. But whilst I offer an apology for the manner, I vi PREFACE. have none to bring forward for the matter in ques- tion. Though written in the intervals of an active professional life, these Essays have been the fruits of my most careful and earnest thought. As would become a courteous host, I offer to him who will sit down with me the best I have, without apology. I can scarcely anticipate that the views enunciated, especially in the first three chapters, will meet in all respects with general acceptance or approval, even amongst thoughtful men. They relate to "prob- lems" of no ordinary complexity and difficulty, concerning which great differences of opinion are inevitable. My object will be attained if intelligent inquiry is directed to the solution of them ; and to an investigation of, and remedy for, some of the evils here indicated. HARLEY STREET, June 21, 1869. CONTENTS PACK I. NATURAL HERITAGE II. ON DEGENERATIONS IN MAN .... III. ON MORAL AND CRIMINAL EPIDEMICS . . . 137 IV. BODY v. MIND 199 V. ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS .... 256 THE DEMON OF SOCRATES .... 299 THE AMULET OF PASCAL 327 VI. ON SOMNAMBULISM . VII. REVERY AND ABSTRACTION 362 NOTES . 381 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. i. NATURAL HERITAGE. PROBLEM : What of essential nature do our parents and ancestors bequeath to us ? Apart from those transitory possessions of money, houses, and land, which do not endure, what do we derive from our parents that is permanent and inalienable, that determines our temperament and constitution, our pro- clivities to health or disease, to virtue or vice, to dulness, mediocrity, or genius, in short, our entire intellectual and moral nature, no less than our physical organiza- tion ? IT is a common saying that "the child is father of the man," an axiom to which I have no objection to urge. But my present intention is to show that there would be a more profound significance in the apparent truism, that *' the man is father of the child " ; in other words, that the child is not only the offspring of the race (as a spe- cies), but of the individual, bearing the traces and conse- quences of his parentage throughout the whole of his compound nature, on his body, soul, and spirit ; and, as a most serious corollary to this, that the career of that child for good or evil, for personal advantages or the contrary, for intellect or for imbecility, and even for moral tendencies, if not written before his birth " with 1 A 2 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. pen of adamant on tablet of brass," is at least marked out for him by boundary lines, which to overpass, if un- favorable, will require more than ordinary courage, reso- lution, and a concurrence of favorable circumstances not often to be looked for. This position I propose now to illustrate. A very cursory glance over the infinitely varied forms of animal life shows two leading principles in accordance with which these forms are arranged and originally con- structed, viz. Uniformity and Diversity ; the former manifested in those analogies of structure, type, and function which in a greater or less degree obtain throughout the whole of animated nature, enabling us to form groups for convenience of investigation and de- scription ; the latter indicated in those differences which constitute the characteristics of the various subdivisions into class, orders, genera, and species. With this final division into species (or, according to some physiologists, into varieties or races), the law of Diversity, so far as regards the specific or distinctive type of structure, is suspended ; species is constant, it may become extinct, but it cannot change. According to Cuvier, the cats, dogs, apes, oxen, birds of prey, and crocodiles of the Cat- acombs, do not differ from those of our own times, any more than human mummies thousands of years old differ from the skeletons of to-day. Lamarck, GeofFroy St. Hi- laire, Darwin, and others, have certainly disputed the absolute fixity of species, recognizing the possibility of new species arising by accidental variation, and natural selection, from those already existing. But since we have no direct evidence of this ever taking place, and have abundance of presumptive proof to the contrary, so far, at least, as the experience of three thousand years will avail, we may safely assert that, in this broad general view, parents live in their offspring. NATURAL HERITAGE. 3 But although the law of Diversity is no longer opera- tive in the modification of the specific type, its effects are manifest in the production of infinite varieties of indi- viduality. Although a dog is always a dog, and a sheep always a sheep, there are no two exactly alike ; in a pack of the former, or a flock of the latter, there are such in- dividual peculiarities in each as to make them readily distinguishable by those familiar with them. These dif- ferences are more numerous and more clearly marked in proportion as the animal is more or less domesticated ; in other words, in proportion as the mode of existence is more or less artificial. In color and general form the wild horse, rabbit, pig, or cat presents so little variety, that the most practised eye would generally fail to detect any given individual out of a number ; whilst the domesticated representa- tives of these tribes are in many cases as distinct in per- sonal characteristics as though belonging to different species. As might be expected from analogy, man, lead- ing a much more domesticated and artificial life than any other animal, presents these individual varieties multiplied to an extreme. In the countless millions of our race that have lived since the creation of the world, it may be safely asserted that no two have been exactly alike in person, intellect, or moral nature ; none so similar that, placed side by side, no mark of distinction could have been detected. " Postremo quodvis frumentum, non tamen omne Quodque in suo genere inter se simile esse videbis, Quin intercurrat quoedam distantia formis. Concharumque genus simili ratione videmus, Pingere telluris gremium, qua mollibus undis Littoris incurvi bibulam pavit scquor arenam." LUCRETIUS. Yet with all this diversity the primary law of uniform- ity is not forgotten ; the dwarf and the giant, the black, the yellow, and the white, Antinoiis and Thersites, tho 4 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. philosopher and the iinhecile, the virtuous man and the man of the most debased instincts and tendencies, all these, contrasted as they mutually are, are still contained within the normal type of humanity, and in their ex- tremes are still more like the ideal man than any other creature. The operation, then, of these two original laws is con- stant and uniform ; and it becomes an interesting ques- tion to ask whether any individual man is the child of the species or of the parents essentially. Looking at the innumerable instances of unmistakable resemblance be- tween parent and offspring, both of a physical and a moral nature, we are led to believe in a direct and uni- form heritage of quality and form ; whilst considering the striking differences between members of even the same family, we cannot but recognize that this direct heritage is greatly affected by modifying agencies. Under the law of uniform transmission of organiza- tion, we observe children inheriting not only the general form and appearance of their parents, but also their mental and moral constitutions, not only in their origi- nal and essential characters, but even in those acquired habits of life, of intellect, of virtue, or of vice, for which they have been remarkable. Under the law of Diversity, we observe deformity and ugliness giving origin to grace and beauty, apparent health producing disease, virtue succeeded by vice, intellect by imbecility, and the con- verse of all these phenomena. By virtue of this law, therefore, generations are enabled to free themselves from the taint entailed upon them by their ancestry, and return to their original purity of type. It may, however, be doubted whether these two laws be in reality so opposed as they appear to be on a super- ficial view, whether any viable child is ever born with- out distinct external or internal evidence of its parent- NATURAL HERITAGE. 5 age in some feature or organ ; and whether the evident differences may not in all cases be due to a direct heri- tage of some temporary and transitory condition of the vital force at the period of procreation. This may be more readily elucidated when we have examined the phenomena of likeness and dissimilarity accompanying the succession of generations. In the mean time the action of the two laws introduces an insuperable obstacle to the exact prediction in most instances of the qualities of the child from a knowledge of those of the parents. Yet one class of phenomena is almost exempt from this species of uncertainty, the most important and the .most practical. External form and color may be subject to variation, health or disease in the parent need not necessarily produce in the child a similar condition, organic peculiarities may possibly disappear in the offspring, inherent, intellect- ual, or moral qualities may not always be transmitted ; but an acquired and habitual vice will rarely fail to leave its trace upon one or more of the offspring, either in its original form or one closely allied. " Habitus per as- suetudinem adquisitus transit in naturam, quse difficul- ter removetur." (Mercatus, De Morb. Hered.) The habit of the parent becomes the all but irresistible in- stinct of the child ; the voluntarily adopted and cher- ished vice of the father or mother becomes the overpow- ering impulse of the son or daughter ; the organic tenden- cy is excited to the uttermost, and the power of will and of conscience is proportionately weakened, weighty con- siderations in forming a judgment on the responsibility of those so fatally affected by this direct inheritance of crime. And so by a natural law it is, and not by any arbitrary or unjust interpolation of Divine vengeance, that the sins of the parents are visited upon tlie chil- dren, that the fathers eat sour grapes, and the chil- dren's teeth are set on edge. 6 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. The illustration of this principle, and the important claims which its recognition has both upon individuals and communities, will form the chief object of my pivs- ent remarks ; but before entering upon it, it will be ne- cessary to review the general phenomena accompanying successive generations, organically considered, which I shall proceed to do after disposing briefly of some proba- ble objections. The doctrine of hereditary transmission of qualities, both corporeal and mental, has had a somewhat singular fate amongst philosophers ; inasmuch as it has met with almost universal acceptance as a matter of fact and the- ory, yet has been almo completely ignored as to its practical bearing by moralists and legislators. Histori- ans and poets have alike, in ancient times, registered the philosophic and popular views which attributed both personal and moral characteristics to parentage. He- rodotus mentions the heritage of caste, of profession, and of moral and intellectual attributes. He casually alludes to Evenius possessing the power of divination, which, as a natural consequence, was inherited by his son, Deiphonus. Homer represents Minerva as address- ing Telemachus in language which doubtless embodies the popular views of that time : " Telemachus! thon shalt hereafter prove Nor base nor poor in talents. If in truth Thou have received from Heaven thy father's force Instilled into thee, and resemblest him In promptness both of action and of speech, Thy voyage shall not useless be, nor vain. But if Penelope produced thec not His son, I then hope not for good effect Of this design, which ardent thou pursuest. Few sons their fathers equal : most appear Degenerate: but we find, though rare, sometimes A son superior even to his sire." Hippocrates, noticing the resemblance of children to NATURAL HERITAGE. 7 their parents, concludes that this does not so much er so essentially consist in the formation or organization of the body, as in the habit or condition of the mind, et patrum in natos abeunt cum semine mores. Horace's well-known maxim is to the same effect : " Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis; Est in juvencis, cst in equts patruin Virtus; nee imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilae columbam." And again, Juvenal : " Scilicet expectas, ut tradat mater honestos, Atque alios mores, quam quos habet? utile porro Filiolam turpi vetulae produc^e turpem." Sal. vi. The sacred writings abound with the recognitions of moral heritage ; I have alluded to some of these pas- sages above. There is another apparently still more direct and forcible. It was a cutting reproach to the Jews, but was not considered even by them as illogical or inconsequent to say, " Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets : Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers." The sacred code of the Hindoos carries the principle of hereditary resemblance almost to a mys- tical identity of personality. The opinions of thoughtful men of later times may almost be summed up in the words of the profound phy- siologist, Burdach : " that heritage has in reality more power over our constitution and character, than all the influences from without, whether moral or physical." Notwithstanding all this weight of testimony to the significance of the phenomena, and notwithstanding the undeniable force of these, the consequences of the doc- trine in question are so grave, and at the same time so inevitable, that it is in no degree surprising that men have Attempted to escape from them by denying the 8 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. premises. The objections have come from the metaphy- sician, the speculative moralist, the theologian, and the legislator. The first, assuming and asserting man's soul to be simple, indivisible, and uncompounded, rejects en- tirely the possibility of its owing anything to a double parentage, the trunk, he says, cannot arise from two stems. The speculative moralist objects that man is hereby made at once more and less responsible for his actions ; less so, because the strong, sometimes almost irresistible, tendency to them is born with him, along with a weakened power of will or resistance, more and more weightily responsible, because the effects of his evil deeds do not die with him, but are handed down to after-generations. The theologian reads that " the soul that sinneth, it shall die," and that the children shall not be answerable for the sins of the parents ; and he cannot see how this is consistent with a direct heritage of propensity to special evil, superadded to the original taint of transgression. The legislator objects to the doc- trine because of the apparently insuperable difficulties which its practical recognition would introduce, in the adjudication of degrees of culpability for crime. All these see the natural and inevitable consequence of these views, and alike escape from them by denying hereditary influence, some in toto, others in part. Such as are consistent and unscrupulous profess to see no such thing anywhere as either physical or moral heritage, affirm inu that all resemblances are accidental, the casual re- sults of the numerous combinations of the elements of the species ; amongst these it is astonishing to find so careful an observer as Louis. Others, amongst whom the distinguished physiologist, Lordat, is the leader, ac- knowledge the hereditary force in animals, but deny it in man. Others, again, compelled by force of demon- stration to recognize a natural succession of corporeal NATURAL HERITAGE. qualities, forcibly dismember human nature ; and, whilst they acknowledge that organization begets like organi- zation, they utterly and completely deny, irrespective of all evidence, the influence of man's moral nature upon his descendants ; and hypothecate a continual re- creation of soul and mind for each individual and each generation. It is, perhaps, needless to say that the the- ologian cannot hold this latter view, as it would be sub- versive of the doctrine of inherited and original moral taint. I have introduced these objections, apparently out of place, before illustrating the doctrines themselves, be- cause they are such as will naturally suggest themselves to the reader's mind, as he sees the consequences develop- ing from facts ; and I wish, by a very brief answer, to provide against this. I would say, in the first place, that if facts are clear and conclusive, a priori theoretic considerations cannot reasonably be allowed to annul the deductions. In regard to the moral responsibility of given individuals, the subject is beset with difficulties, and can scarcely be satisfactorily discussed until we are further advanced in the inquiry. It may be said ? how- ever, at this stage, that tendency is not action. Between the impulse to commit any given act, and its actual ac- complishment, there is in the sane mind an interval during which Will and Conscience are in operation ; and, according as action conforms to these two, it is more or less an object of responsibility. To the legislator wo may reply very concisely, either the doctrine is true, or it is false ; if the latter, this must be proved by facts, and not by ex post facto considerations ; if the former, any attempt to deny or ignore it, simply to evade sup- posed difficulties, is merely criminal. There are others, however, whose indisposition to en> tertain this doctrine is of a more practical nature, and 1* 10 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. more deserving of sympathy, I mean those who con- sider the bearing of this question upon the heritage of disease. They see the facts of frequent, perhaps almost invariable, succession of disease, from generation to gen- eration, but hesitate to recognize in this the stern pressure of an inevitable law. To them it seems hard that masses of the people should have to say, " Our fathers have sinned, and are not ; and we have borne their iniquities." Yet in the arrangements alike of nature and Providence, it will be found that if " clouds and darkness are round about Him" it will ultimately appear that " righteousness and judgment are the habitations of His throne." Even out of this darkness there gleams a light. Evil is not eternal, nor disease, it has its natural history, its rise, and its decay and disappearance. As in all natural departures from original type, due to special causes, there is a con- stant tendency to return to the type, when the disturbing influences are removed ; so in disease, when the cause is removed, lapse of time, or a succession of generations, may purify the organization, and the curse will be re- moved. In Dr. Gull's eloquent discourse on " Clinical Observation in Relation to Medicine in Modern Times" 1 there are some remarks so appropriate to this subject, that I make no apology for quoting them at length : " The strength of modern therapeutics lies in the clearer perception than formerly of the great truth, that diseases are but perverted life processes, and have for their natural history, not only a beginning, but a period of culmination and decline. In common inflammatory affections, this is now admitted to be an almost universal law. By time and rest, that innate vix medicatrix, ' Which hath an operation more divine Than breath or pen can give expression to, 1 reduces the perversions back again to the physiological i See Notes at the end of the Essay. NATURAL HERITAGE. 11 limits, and health is restored. To this beneficent law we owe the maintenance of the form and beauty of our race, in the presence of so much that tends to spoil and degrade it. We cannot pass through the crowded streets and alleys of our cities without recognizing proofs of this in the children's faces, in spite of all their squalor and misery ; and when we remember what this illustration, in all its details, reveals, we may well take heart, even where our work seems most hopeless. The effects of disease may be for a third or fourth generation, but the laws of health are for a thousand" Having thus alluded to the objections urged against natural heritage (to which, should space permit, I shall return hereafter), I now proceed to a detailed examina- tion of the phenomena upon which these views are founded, under the two divisions of the law of Diversity, and the law of Uniformity, or likeness, both (and equally) laws of inheritance : by virtue of the one, the child represents the nature of its parent ; by the other, it represents also the possibilities of the species. But in speaking of these laws let it be understood that I mean no more than collections of phenomena. Why two masses of matter attract each other, or why under other circum- stances, they repel, we cannot tell ; neither can we say ivhy one child shall be like its parents, and another not ; but it is within our province to investigate the conditions under which such attraction and repulsion take place ; and also frequently those under which resemblance and dissimilarity occur. I propose to commence my investigation by an inquiry into the law of Diversity, as involving in itself perhaps more curious facts than even that of Uniformity. As species is constant, it would not be startling to find that individual type became constant also ; that beauty should produce beauty, and deformity, deformity ; but that the 12 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. reverse should frequently happen may well excite some surprise. It is in accordance with this law of Diversity that sjxries has so strong a tendency, after artificial or acci- dental modification, to return to its original type, as in the case of mixed breeds often returning to one or other parent stock. In accordance with it also, indi- viduals are enabled to escape the consequences of evils which, were the hereditary law constant, would be en- tailed upon them. It is by this law that genius arises from mediocrity, virtue from vice, and the reverse of these. It is also by this law that, under certain physical agencies, under certain infractions of natural or moral regulations, and other circumstances, humanity degene- rates into something far below its type. It is also proba- bly in accordance with this law of spontaneous variation, that the races of men, now so different as to have sug- gested to many a diversity of origin, have sprung from one stock, in which a variety has occurred and become hereditary. This will receive further illustration here- after. In personal appearance it frequently happens that children do not at all resemble their parents ; from parents remarkable for plainness, as Maupertuis observes, spring often children of extreme beauty. This fact struck Sinibaldi amongst the Italian peasantry very forcibly. " I have often asked myself," says he, "whence it arose, that from almost deformed rustics, and from females of hideous features, should spring girls of ravishing beauty." His somewhat singular theory I give in his own words : " Scio aliquem mordicus responsurum id accidere, quia hro cum nobilibus, venustisque, si placeat, congredinntur. Absit injuria ; non enim tanta libidinis licentia cst in urbe, ut ubique vulnerata invenietur pudicitia, ubique thalamus, fides que temerata. Hocevenit quoniam in urbe, frequent issiine festi- vitates celebrantur, aut equitatus, aut publica spectacula fiunt, NATURAL HERITAGE. 13 aut coelitum invisuntur terapla, aut aune captandae gratia per compita, plateasque, deambulatur. His omnibus accurrunt mixtim viri mulieresque, et venusti simul juvenis, ut formo- sarum conspectibus fruantur. Quare mulierculae quaecumque etiam aspiciuntur, salibus ac dicteriis aphrodisiasticis inces- suntur, unde et illse animo menteque idola ilia pulcherrimae juventutis conspiciunt, ad quorum deinde exemplum virtus formatrix, dum e suis viris concipiunt, decoras emngit facies, venustaque pingit membra." 2 In stature it sometimes happens that moderately sized parents have very tall, or very short children, without any well-marked physical reasons for such variations. Venette relates the case of a family of eight children, of whom the alternate four were dwarfs. The celebrated Pole, Borwslaski, whose height was twenty-eight inches at his full growth, was born of healthy parents of ordi- nary stature. They had six children, the eldest thirty- four inches high ; the youngest, at six years of age, twenty-one inches ; the three other brothers, five feet six inches each. The eyes and hair frequently differ in color from those of both parents, a child with fair hair occurring in a family of brunettes, &c. A recognition of the true prin- ciple of "spontaneous variation" would, in some of these cases, tend to prevent any misinterpretation of the phe- nomena. A variation very frequently observed in the color of the hair, is the succession of red hair in one gen- eration to black hair in the preceding one. A friend, very familiar with the Highlands of Scotland, informs me that this succession is almost constant there, and that the Dhu, or black, is generally succeeded by the Ruach, or red, and vice versa, whilst the Bahn, Bant, or white, evinces more constancy in color. It is exceedingly rare to find red or black hair in the white or fair-haired tribes ; while the darker tribes regularly alternate black and red. 14 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. Sometimes the two eyes are of different colors. Buffou states that this peculiarity is only observed in the horse and in man ; but I remember to have seen the same in an entire family of cats. Internal organization, and what is called temperament, of children, also differ from those of the parents and each other, in so many cases, that Louis considers varia- tion the rule, and conformity only the exception : " Le temperament des enfants qui naissent d'un meme pere, et d'une meme mere, est presque toujours different ; les uns sont bilieux, les autres sanguins," &c. It is a remarkable fact that twins are often very differ- ent in the respects just alluded to. Barthez relates the case of two twin sisters, in Hungary, who lived twenty- two years, and who, although joined together by organic union, and having a communicating system of blood- vessels, were of most dissimilar temperament and disposi- tion. It may be mentioned that twins so united have not generally any common nature, or striking similarity. An interesting illustration of the diversities that may thus exist may be found in a description of the Siamese twins by Sir James Simpson, in the Lancet for this month (March, 1869). Curious minor idiosyncrasies are frequently met with, springing up in children without corresponding traits in the parents; in fact, all those peculiarities which we shall afterwards see becoming hereditary have at first originated according to this law of spontaneous variation, of which little explanation can be given. Zimmerman mentions several instances of these apparent anomalies. One man experiences intolerable anguish on having his nails cut ; another cannot bear the touch of a sponge on the face ; another is sick with the srnell of coffee, &c. : all these may become hereditary. There are spontaneous variations of type observed NATURAL HERITAGE. 15 amongst animals which are of more importance than these, as throwing light upon certain branches of anthro- pology, such is the production of apparently new races from an old stock. I do not here allude to the pro- gressive variations often produced in wild races of ani- mals in process of domestication, changes induced by climate, food, culture, erhaps not to the same extent, by similar inconveniences to those amongst actual relatives. Lallemand remarks, that " nothing is more favorable to the improvement of populations than their crossing with 72 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. those who live in opposed conditions, because evil ten- dencies on each side neutralize each other in the offspring, and because each supplies what the other needs. It is thus that the most beautiful families of the south are those which proceed from Germans or Hollanders allied to women of the country." M. Devay also remarks, that those families of Berlin which are most remarkable for their beauty, their force, and their intelligence, proceed from French exiles married to young ladies of Berlin. Dr. Prichard remarks that, " in some parts of Ireland, where the Celtic population of that island is nearly un- mixed, they are, in general, a people of short stature, small limbs and features ; where they are mixed with English settlers, or with the Lowlanders of Scotland, the people are remarkable for fine figures, tall stature, and great physical energy." Leaving this point, I pass on to notice the results of certain vicious habits in the parents upon their offspring ; amongst which, standing out in bold relief, we notice intemperance, which we shall take as illustrating suffi- ciently the whole series of vices. We have already noticed the hereditary nature of drunkenness, and some of its morbid results ; we have now to trace more especially some of the modifications caused in the phy- sical and moral nature of the child, due to such habits in the parent. The first point to be noticed is this, that the habit of the parent, when inherited, does not appear in the child merely as a habit, but in most cases as an irresistible impulse, a disease. This disease, known as oinomania, or dipsomania, is quite readily to be distinguished from ordinary intemperate habits ; it is characterized by a re- cent writer in the Psychological Journal as " an impulsive desire for stimulant drinks, uncontrollable by any motives that can be addressed to the understanding or conscience, NATURAL HERITAGE. 73 in which self-interest, self-esteem, friendship, love, relig- ion, are appealed to in vain ; in which the passion for drink is the master passion, and subdues to itself every other desire and faculty of the soul The victims of it are often the offspring of persons who have indulged in stimulants, or who have weakened the cerebrum by vicious habits or undue mental labor." The same writer gives, amongst other striking illustrations, the follow- ing : " In the case of a member of an artistic profes- sion there is great natural talent and aptitude for business, so that he gives the highest satisfaction to his employers ; but at varying intervals of time from a few weeks to several months the oinomaniac is absent for several days from his office on a drunken 'spree.' When he returns, great is his remorse, bitter his self- condemnation, loud and resolutely expressed his promises to resist temptation. For a while all goes on well ; but, sooner or later, the temptation comes, the alcoholic stimulant is presented, is irresistible, and a paroxysm is the result, ending as before. Now, the brother of this im- pulsive oinomaniac is the victim of continuous drunken- ness ; the father of both was a continuous drunkard, who believed himself to be a teapot, to be made of glass, &c., and who, in a paroxysm of inebriate fury, burnt a cat alive ; and the grandmother's brother was also an impulsive, and finally a continuous oinomaniac. It is related of this grand-uncle that, his friends having taken away his clothes on a Sunday morning, hoping to confine him to the house, he went into his warehouse, and donning a funeral cloak, made his way to the dram- shop. These cases illustrate the hereditary transmission of the predisposition from generation to generation." Now glance at a sketch of a similar condition given by M. Morel, and then ask how far such an individual is a responsible being : 74 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. " Such cases present themselves to our observation with the predominance of a phenomenon, of the psychical order, which 1 have already had occasion to mention, i. e. a complete abolition of all the moral sentiments. One might say that no distinction between good and evil re- mains in the minds of these degraded beings. They have desolated and ruined their families without experiencing the least regret ; in the acute state of their delirium they have nearly destroyed all that came in their way, and preserve no remembrance of it. The love of vaga- bondism seems to govern the acts of a great number of them. They quit their homes without troubling them- selves where they may go ; they cannot explain the motives of their disorderly tendencies ; their existence is passed in the extremes! apathy, the most absolute indif- ference, and volition seems to be replaced by a stupid automatism." This, by its phenomena, its progress, and its termina- tion, is clearly marked as a diseased condition, and under its influence infractions of social right and order are often committed, w r hich are in the present state of our law punished as crimes, instead of being treated as diseases, and for which we should hold the unfortunate subject to be as irresponsible as any other maniac, and remove him from society, and from the means whereby to gratify his morbid propensities accordingly. For, what is really the state of the case 1 This unhappy person is born with a strong tendency towards vice, inherited perhaps from his own parents ; perhaps, in still more confirmed cases, from a long line of vicious ancestry. Theoretically con- sidered, this impulsive tendency may probably not be absolutely irresistible, but practically it is almost if not altogether so. For whilst the organism is so constituted as to receive vividly impressions of temptation, the force of the will and the power of resistance are indefinitely NATURAL HERITAGE. 75 diminished, so that moral liberty must be considered as in abeyance. This diminution of the power of the will is one of the most constant phenomena attendant both upon drinking and opium-eating. " This," says a writer already quoted, " is a very im- portant point in the history of oinomania, especially in relation to those forms which are clearly to be traced to hereditary transmission, either from insane parents or from those who have enfeebled their cerebrum by nervine stimulants. Indeed, this inferiority of the will is itself virtually a species of imbecility, not always, doubtless, accompanied by imbecility of intellect, but occasionally, on the contrary, associated with the highest powers of thought and imagination." The two Coleridges, father and son, exemplify this point most strikingly ; the elder was an opium-eater, and writes of himself that, not only in reference to this sen- sual indulgence, but in all the relations of life, his will was utterly powerless. Hartley Coleridge inherited hia father's necessity for stimulant (which in his case was alcoholic), and with it his weakness of volition. Even when young, his brother thus writes of him : " A cer- tain infirmity of will had already shown itself. His sensi- bility was intense, and he had not wherewithal to control it. He could not open a letter without trembling. He shrank from mental pain ; he was beyond measure im- patient of constraint He yielded, as it were un- co7isciously, to slight temptations, slight in themselves, and slight to him, as if swayed by a mechanical impulse apart from his own volition. It looked like an organic defect, a congenital imperfection." He was well aware of his own weakness. In one of his books he wrote as follows : " Oh ! woful impotence of weak resolve. Recorded rashly to the writer's shame, 76 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. Pays pass away, and time's large orbs revolve, And every day beholds me still the same, Till oft-neglected purpose loses aim, And hope becomes a flat unheeded lie." These exalted types of mind contrasted with such weak- nesses are not common ; but the weakness itself in its most aggravated form is so. Such men are not respon- sible, in the sense in which soundly organi/ed men are, The elder Coleridge knew that he was not, and wished to be sent to an asylum to be cured of his propensities ; thia was not effected, but he had a constant special attendant for the purpose. But there is no such resource as this for those in the lower walks of life, and of lower orders of intellect. Their temptations are more gross, and are not unfrequently indulged by means of theft or violence, and the perpetrators are treated as common malefactors. They are perhaps imprisoned ; and for the time this is salutary, because they cannot obtain drink : but they constantly relapse, and are constantly repunished ; and hence is ever recruited that hopeless and incorrigible body of our criminal population, the stock and capital of our police-courts. This system is manifestly unjust ; there is wilful crime in plenty in the world, but there is also disease of mind which resembles and re-enacts crime ; and to punish this disease is neither humane nor reason- able ; for punishment, far from curing, chiefly exacerbates it. For the continuance of it there are two principal reasons ; one of which is trivial enough, whilst the other contains practical difficulties of no ordinary character, and which may for some time to come prove insuperable. The first to which I allude is this, there are enlightened men in all professions who recognize mental unsoundness as forming a very material element in human actions, but they are still in the minority. In courts of justice this plea is occasionally brought forward, in accordance with NATURAL HERITAGE. 77 the dictates of humanity and true philosophy ; but in the special case of which I am now speaking, the name is unfortunate. No sooner is it proved that the accused is laboring under the disease called dipsomania, than the opposed counsel makes the inevitable pun of "tipso- mania," and few juries are proof against so cogent an argument. It will be remembered that this occurred not long ago in one of our courts. The second reason is of a much more serious nature, it is one of distinction. It is feared that crime might go unpunished under the name of disease, and that so encouragement might be given to vicious propensities and actions. That this would be a difficulty in actual administration there is no doubt ; but if the position be true, should this considera- tion stand in the way of its due recognition 1 In France, a person accused of crime, but showing signs of such a disease, is submitted to the examination of a commission appointed for the purpose to decide whether he is in a responsible state of mind or otherwise. If he is considered responsible, the jury try the facts as in ordinary cases, and the judgment proceeds ; if not, the facts are still tried, but seclusion in an asylum is sub- stituted for other punishment. It cannot be said that under this system criminals escape punishment, for it may fairly be questioned whether, to a man sane and merely vicious, the isolation in such an institution, and the inability therein involved to gratify his natural tastes and evil inclinations, is not a greater punishment than the treadmill or other labor would be. The instincts of these oinomaniacs, and those suffer- ing under an analogous affection, the erotomaniacs, seem to be as violent and as little under any control from the intellect or will, as those of a carnivorous animal when it smells or tastes blood ; or as the condition alluded to in these lines in reference to another appetite : 78 A PHYSICIAN'S PROBI^fS. Nonne vides ut tutu tremor pertentet equonim Corpora, si tnntam notas