Excerpt from Canada Medical and Surgical Journal, 1877, Vol. 5: Monthly Record of Medical and Surgical Science Accepting this view of the question, we can suppose a man born one hundred years ago with an insane neurosis, there could, at the present time, be two hundred people the offspring of that man, each of them having the hereditary taint, here there would be a fearful increase of the remote cause of insanity. But when we come to consider how many men existed one hun dred years ago, with an insane neurosis, we have to come to the fearful conclusion that there are but few in the present day, who have not in them the hereditary insane neurosis. I say it is a fearful conclusion to come to, nevertheless if it be true it is better we should recognize it, and guard, as far as it is possi ble, against the exciting cause, which develops the latent malady. In every hereditary disease there must be an exciting cause to develop the malady, a man may be the subject of latent phthisis, and never know it, not even his medical man may suspect it, till he gets an attack of bronchitis or pneumonia, when phthisis will develop itself. A man may be the subject of gout, and never know it till some ordinary disease reduces his system below par, and gout, for the first time, develops itself. A man may have latent cancer in his system, and never know it, till some of his glands receive a physical injury, when the cancer will develop itself. So likewise, a man may have in him an insane neurosis, and neither himself, no any one else, be the wiser of it, till it is developed by its own peculiar exciting cause, and my theory is that the exciting cause that develops insanity is su ering, and I call suffering anything, no matter what it is, even though pleasurable to the person, like excessive venery, that diminishes vital power, or nervous force, and all physical suffering does diminish vital power or nervous force. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."