The feebly inhibited : nomadism, or the wandering impulse, with special reference to heredity inheritance of temperament / by Charles B. Davenport.

  • Charles Benedict Davenport
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The feebly inhibited : nomadism, or the wandering impulse, with special reference to heredity inheritance of temperament / by Charles B. Davenport. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    REFERENCE TO HEREDITY. I. SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT-MATTER AND NOMENCLATURE. It is a familiar observation that persons differ greatly in their capacity for remaining quiet and satisfied for a long period in one place. One occasionally meets a woman who, though living within 30 miles of a metropolis, has, in the 80 years of her life, been there only once. At the other extreme are the tramps and gypsies who travel constantly or with only slight intermissions and many of whom have repeatedly visited all quarters of the globe. An extreme in another direction includes those who, while capable of steady and effective work, at more or less regular periods run away from the place where their duties lie and travel considerable distances, either fully conscious and oriented, or in a dazed condition, or, it may be, living in a secondary, ordinarily submerged, state of consciousness (trance or fugue). Thus human locomotor responses range from sessility and extreme domesticity to “ambulatory automatism.’’ A term is needed to apply to these cases in all of their variety; and it is not easy to decide on one. The German word “ Wandertrieb’’ is satisfactory, implying an impulse to wander or travel. The word “Wanderlust’’ (often and not improperly used as an English word) implies a rather mild form of desire for and love of travel. Vaga- bondage and vagrancy connote too much of pauperism and low social status for our purpose. Fugue is usually applied to the extreme cases, of most markedly pathological nature, where normal consciousness is impaired. Dromomania has been used as a synonym of ambulatory automatism. Nomadism has often been applied to a racial or tribal tendency to wander. On the whole, I am inclined to use the word “nomadism ’’ just because it has a racial connotation. From a modern point of view all hereditary characters are racial. Moreover, the term “nomadic” is in good use for the restless, wandering type. Says Lowell (I'ireside Travels, p. 97) “The American is nomadic in religion, in ideas, in morals, and leaves his faith and opinions with as much indifference as the house in which he lives.” In view of this usage and the convenience of the word, the phenomenon with which this paper deals will be called nomadism.
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