This is notoriously the case in some of those whose ancestors for several generations have been criminals, insane or drunkards." Again (p.

331) "We know that some of the children of many generations of thieves take to stealing, as a young wild duck among tame ones takes to hiding in holes, and that the children of savage races cannot copy at once our ethics nor our power of controlling our actions.
It seems to take many generations to redevelop an atrophied conscience.
There is no doubt that an organic lawlessness is transmitted hereditarily." Mr.W.Bevan Lewis says (A text-book of Mental Disease, p.

203) "It is also notable, that in a large proportion of cases, we find the history of ancestral insanity attached to the grand-parents, or the collateral line of uncles and aunts, significant of a more remote origin for the neurosis.

The actual proportion of cases revealing strongly-marked hereditary features (often involving several members of the subject's ancestry), amounts to 36 per cent;" while Mr.Briscoe declares (Journal of Mental Science, Oct.

1896) that 90% of the insane have a heredity of insanity.
The following table from Dr.MacGregor's reports gives an account of two families in New Zealand and their Asylum history.
Cost per head.
Number.