ABSTRACT
According to official statistics one person in 266 is of unsound mind, and at least one in 217, or nearly one-half per cent, of the population, is mentally defective. It must be noted that these figures refer only to children on school registers, and do not necessarily include all mentally deficient children, nor do they include the neuropathic children. Heredity is by far the most frequent and the most potent predisposing cause of nervous and mental diseases. The child may inherit the characteristics of one parent only, or partly those of one and partly those of the other. One of the dangers, and one that might be averted, arises from those men and women who have been once insane. It must not be forgotten that insanity is not the only result of such inherited predisposition; nervous diseases of all kinds may be developed in the children of insane parents: epilepsy, dipsomania, criminal tendencies, idiocy, and the like.
