ugh
succeeding generations, the number of defectives, of those incapable of
taking a useful part in society, will become smaller and smaller. One
who does not believe that these people hand on their traits to their
descendants may profitably consider the famous history of the so-called
Juke family, a strain originating among the "finger lakes" of New York,
whose history was published by R. L. Dugdale as far back as 1877 and
lately restudied by A. H. Estabrook.

"From one lazy vagabond nicknamed 'Juke,' born in 1720, whose two sons
married five degenerate sisters, six generations numbering about 1,200
persons of every grade of idleness, viciousness, lewdness, pauperism,
disease, idiocy, insanity and criminality were traced. Of the total
seven generations, 300 died in infancy; 310 were professional paupers,
kept in almshouses a total of 2,300 years; 440 were physically wrecked
by their own 'diseased wickedness'; more than half the women fell into
prostitution; 130 were convicted criminals; 60 were thieves; 7 were
murderers; only 20 learned a trade, 10 of these in state prison, and all
at a state cost of over $1,250,000."[74]

How heredity works both ways, is shown by the history of the Kallikak
family, published by H. H. Goddard a few years ago.

"At the beginning of the Revolutionary War a young man, known in the
history as Martin Kallikak, had a son by a nameless, feeble-minded girl,
from whom there have descended in the direct line four hundred and
eighty individuals. One hundred and forty-three of these are known to
have been feeble-minded, and only forty-six are known to have been
normal. The rest are unknown or doubtful. Thirty-six have been
illegitimate; thirty-three, sexually immoral, mostly prostitutes;
twenty-four, alcoholic; three, epileptic; eighty-two died in infancy;
three were criminal, and eight kept houses of ill-fame. After the war,
Martin Kallikak married a woman of good stock. From this union have come
in direct line four hundred and ninety-six, among whom only two were
alcoholic, and one known to be sexually immoral. The legitimate children
of Martin have been doctors, lawyers, judges, educators, traders,
landholders, in short, respectable citizens, men and women prominent in
every phase of social life. These two families have lived on the same
soil, in the same atmosphere, and in short, under the same general
environment, yet the bar sinister has marked every generation of one and
has been unknown