Especially may we have reason to expect that such will prove to be the result in reference to those diatheses which are formed through the influence of alcohol and tobacco, or by the indulgence of the lower passions, but the elimination of insanity by these means can, at the most, be only partial.
The second measure by means of which the unfavorable influences of heredity may be modified in their subjects, is that of education.
I confidently believe the day will come when the first question which will be asked concerning a child who is to commence an education, will be as to his or her inheritance; and after obtaining all possible information concerning this point, it will be a part of the teacher’s duty to study the physical and mental traits and tendencies of each child in the light of this information. The time will come when the importance of individuality in education will be so highly appreciated that it will be considered as essential in all recognized systems. Already there has been a beginning in this direction, in reference to certain classes of children. It is not many years since feeble-minded children were treated as most others now are, and were left to get any little education they might be able to, with all others. Gradually the importance of individual education for these weak-minded ones has dawned on the public mind; so that by systems now in use, many of these, otherwise almost utterly useless members of the community, have been trained to a degree of usefulness and self-support.
What has been done for this class should be done for all classes of persons whose inheritance has in any measure been of a morbid character. These pyschic neuroses group themselves into certain forms, often at an early age, and require special care and training from childhood, lest they develop into actual disease in later life. Among these may be mentioned the following:
| 1. The Precocious, | ||
| 2. The Passionate and Cruel, | ||
| 3. The Timid, | Child. | |
| 4. The Wilful, | ||
| 5. The Lonely, |
For each of these classes of children special lines of education and management should be followed, and they should be of such a character as may tend to repress and correct tendencies of character which in the future will be almost certain to become morbid. The professional observations of most physicians who have large experience with diseases of the nervous system, will suggest the cases of patients who have become insane, and in whose inheritances and histories some of the above-named characters have been specially prominent in childhood.
Whatever, therefore, is to be done with a view to modify proclivities toward those morbid neuroses which result from hereditary influences, or have been acquired through the force of habit, must be accomplished mainly through the influence of education, reaching, in different channels, both parents and children.