phoid fever. But there are certain forms of
mental disease, generally lumped under the term "insanity," which
indicate a hereditarily disordered nervous organization, and individuals
suffering from one of these diseases should certainly not be given any
chance to perpetuate their insanity to posterity. Two types of insanity
are now recognized as especially transmissible:--dementia precox, a sort
of precocious old age, in which the patient (generally young) sinks into
a lethargy from which he rarely recovers; and manic-depressive insanity,
an over-excitable condition, in which there are occasional very erratic
motor discharges, alternating with periods of depression. Constitutional
psychopathic inferiority, which means a lack of emotional adaptability,
usually shows in the family history. The common type of insanity which
is characterized by mild hallucinations is of less concern from a
eugenic point of view.

In general, the insane are more adequately restricted than any other
dysgenic class in the community; not because the community recognizes
the disadvantage of letting them reproduce their kind, but because there
is a general fear of them, which leads to their strict segregation; and
because an insane person is not considered legally competent to enter
into a marriage contract. In general, the present isolation of the sexes
at institutions for the insane is satisfactory; the principal problem
which insanity presents lies in the fact that an individual is
frequently committed to a hospital or asylum, kept there a few years
until apparently cured, and then discharged; whereupon he returns to his
family to beget offspring that are fairly likely to become insane at
some period in their lives. Every case of insanity should be accompanied
by an investigation of the patient's ancestry, and if there is
unmistakable evidence of serious neuropathic taint, such steps as are
necessary should be taken to prevent that individual from becoming a
parent at any time.

The hereditary nature of most types of epilepsy is generally held to be
established,[81] and restrictive measures should be used to prevent the
increase of the number of epileptics in the country. It has been
calculated that the number of epileptics in the state of New Jersey,
where the most careful investigation of the problem has been made, will
double every 30 years under present conditions.

In dealing with both insanity and epilepsy, the eugenist faces the
diff