ID# 1919:
"The Inheritance of Mental Traits," from Evolution and Genetics, by Thomas H. Morgan, an early criticism of eugenics in an important text
Date:
1925
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8)
Source:
Cold Spring Harbor, ERO,

&quote;The Inheritance of Mental Traits,&quote; from Evolution and Genetics, by Thomas H. Morgan, an early criticism of eugenics in an important text

202 Evolution and Genetics cause, the effects may be to a large extent communicated rather than inherited. It is quite possible of course that an inherited defective dominant character might furnish the starting point for these histories, but that the subsequent events are all due to "bad blood" or "defective germ-plasm" remains to be shown. "Insanity" is another "psychological trait" that is said to be inherited and the numerous pedigrees that have been collected showing that certain types of insanity occur more frequently in certain families than in others seem to furnish evidence in support of such a claim. That is particularly the case in Huntington's chorea ([italics]fig.[end italics] 77) a type of insanity, often leading ultimately to suicide, that does not appear as a rule until middle life or later. Since it appears to be dominant, its history is more easily followed than in most other cases where the dominance or recessiveness is in question. Huntington's chorea has been traced in a limited group of indi- [figure 77 - pedigree chart middle of page] [caption under chart]Fig. 77. - Chart showing the inheritance of Huntington's chorea. ([italics]After Davenport.[end italics]) [end]

Copyright 1999-2004: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; American Philosophical Society; Truman State University; Rockefeller Archive Center/Rockefeller University; University of Albany, State University of New York; National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument; University College, London; International Center of Photography; Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem; and Special Collections, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
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