acts brought out in the histories
which I have been able to study.[183]

RACE.--All my cases, 80 in number, are British and American, 20 living in
the United States and the rest being British. Ancestry, from the point of
view of race, was not made a matter of special investigation. It appears,
however, that at least 44 are English or mainly English; at least 10 are
Scotch or of Scotch extraction; 2 are Irish and 4 others largely Irish; 4
have German fathers or mothers; another is of German descent on both
sides, while 2 others are of remote German extraction; 2 are partly, and 1
entirely, French; 2 have a Portuguese strain, and at least 2 are more or
less Jewish. Except the apparently frequent presence of the German
element, there is nothing remarkable in this ancestry.

HEREDITY.--It is always difficult to deal securely with the significance
of heredity, or even to establish a definite basis of facts. I have by no
means escaped this difficulty, for in some cases I have not even had an
opportunity of cross-examining the subjects whose histories I have
obtained. Still, the facts, so far as they emerge, have some interest. I
possess some record of heredity in 62 of my cases. Of these, not less than
24, or in the proportion of nearly 39 per cent., assert that they have
reason to believe that other cases of inversion have occurred in their
families, and, while in some it is only a strong suspicion, in others
there is no doubt whatever. In one case there is reason to suspect
inversion on both sides. Usually the inverted relatives have been
brothers, sisters, cousins, or uncles. In one case a bisexual son seems to
have had a bisexual father.

This hereditary character of inversion (which was denied by
Naecke) is a fact of great significance, and, as it occurs in
cases with which I am well acquainted, I can have no doubt
concerning the existence of the tendency. The influence of
suggestion may often be entirely excluded, especially when the
persons are of different sex. Both Krafft-Ebing and Moll noted a
similar tendency. Von Roemer states that in one-third of his cases
there was inversion in other members of the family. Hirschfeld
also found that there is a relatively high proportion of cases of
family inversion.

Twenty-six, so far as can be ascertained, belong to reasonably healthy
families; minute investigation would probably reduce the number of these,
and it is noteworthy t