NCJ Number
121125
Date Published
1988
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Based on the premise that mothers are more responsible than fathers in generating bad offspring, this family study of two brothers considers a man who fathered two lines, one healthy and the other degenerate.
Abstract
The eldest brother was illegitimate, while the other brother was born after the father married a Quaker woman from a sound family. The lawful marriage produced a normal line of intelligent citizens, including physicians, lawyers, and bankers. The illegitimate union resulted in almshouse cases, brothel keepers, criminals, and mental persons in subsequent family generations. The only difference between the two sons was their biological mothers. The degenerate family is a complex problem, it appears to inherit and preserve from the normal ancestor the strong and attractive personal characteristics, along with low mental and moral endowment from the subnormal side. This combination of good and bad traits persisted even to the sixth family generation.