Mental medicine and nursing : for use in training-schools for nurses and in medical classes and a ready reference for the general practitioner . the ancestors, but INSANITY 55 also in other related conditions, as eccentricity,neuroses, alcoholism, etc. In one so predisposed,it is often found that his constitution is unequalto the task of carrying him through certain in-evitable periods of his development. Usuallyone of the parents or a near relative has beennervous or actuallyinsane; some ances-tor may have beenof vicious habits,intemperate, scrofu-lous, or consumptive,syphilitic, etc., andthe
Mental medicine and nursing : for use in training-schools for nurses and in medical classes and a ready reference for the general practitioner . the ancestors, but INSANITY 55 also in other related conditions, as eccentricity,neuroses, alcoholism, etc. In one so predisposed,it is often found that his constitution is unequalto the task of carrying him through certain in-evitable periods of his development. Usuallyone of the parents or a near relative has beennervous or actuallyinsane; some ances-tor may have beenof vicious habits,intemperate, scrofu-lous, or consumptive,syphilitic, etc., andthe insane constitu-tion entailed in thechildren. The prev-alence of hereditarypredispositionamong the insanevaries widely asgiven by the au-thorities, due ingreat measure to the Complexity Of the FIG. 14.—A case of inherited predisposi- subject. White esti-mates the average at from 60 to 70 per cent. Heredity is either direct or collateral, accordingas it is observed in parents or grandparents, orin collateral branches of the family. It may be from one parent, either father ormother, and then it is paternal or maternal, as thecase may 56 MENTAL MEDICINE AND NURSING Acquired Predisposition.—Any prolonged toxic-exhaustive condition may by acting upon thenormal brain bring about such changes as tolower its resistance to disease and thus predisposethe individual to the development of mentalailment. The most important agents in bring-ing about an ac-quired predisposi-tion are alcohol,syphilis, and tuber-culosis. Age is anotherimportant predis-posing factor inproducing periods oflife are productiveof distinct forms ofthe disease. Life may be di-vided into the fol-lowing epochs: (a)childhood; (b) pu- FlG. is.—Arrested mental development berty | (c) adoleS-in infancy. , cence; (a) matur-ity; (e) climacteric; (/) senility. The three first are the stages of development,the two next are stationary periods, and the lastis the stage or period of decline. (a) Childh
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