A first study of the statistics of insanity and the inheritance of the insane diathesis / by David Heron.

  • Heron, David.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A first study of the statistics of insanity and the inheritance of the insane diathesis / by David Heron. 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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    considered as the principal or contributory cause of the sanity of the sane members. It is the old story, which needs endless reiteration. From statistics of the patho- logical section of the population alone no argument as to inheritance can be deduced. Only by actual data as to the normal section can the evidence of the pathologist be made complete. It is necessary to supplement the data which the asylum or sana- torium provides, either directly by large random samples of the general population, or indirectly by census or other vital statistics. Table XV. Intensity of Parental Inheritance. Condition Source of Data Computer and Locus Minimum Value Maximum Value Probable Value Pathological: Pulmouary Tuber- \Dr River's, Crossley \Pearson, Studies iii National •40 •60 •50 culosis j Sanatorium j Deterioration, II. Deaf Mutism ... Dr Fay's Data (Schuster, Biometrika, Vol. \ IV., p. 466 et seq. •45 •62 •54 Insanity Dr Urquhart's Data Heron, Present Memoir ... •52 •62 •57 Physical; Stature ... Span Forearm 1 Pearson, j Family Measurements \PearsonandLee, Biometrika, ] Vol. n., p. 378 •49 •45 •41 •51 •46 •42 •50 •46 •42 Eye-Oolour Galton, Family Records (Pearson and Lee, Phil. \ Trans., A 195, p. 106 et seq. •44 •55 •50 Psychical: Intelligence / Pearson, \ Family Schedules \E. M. Elderton, Pearson, / Scope of Eugenics, pp. 31—3 •58 >i Oxford, Class Lists ... 1 Schuster and Elderton, The \lnheritance of Ability, p. 41 •44 •54 •49 (7) Fraternal Inlieritance. Our data enable us to test how far the above appreciation of the intensity of the inheritance of the insane diathesis is confirmed by the resemblance in this character of siblings, i.e. brothers and sisters. When the material available is far larger than at present, it wOl certainly be desirable to separate the sexes. But as we have only 315 families, and the mean age of first attack is very much the same for both sexes, they have in this memoir been dealt with together. Now out of the 315 families with one sibling insane, there were 404 insane indi- viduals and 1433 sane individuals, when we have excluded children who died in infancy or who are under 20 years of age and have not yet entered the danger zone. It will be clear that even with these limitations the family record is not complete. We should probably not err, if we supposed that on an average at least |- of a sibship affected with insanity in one of its members will be found insane on completion of the record. But a correction for the incompleteness of the family record, though far more necessary here than in the case of parental inheritance, has not been made, as it would lead us into too hypothetical a field. We content our-