Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/327

Rh August (1579-1666), the second generation, married an authoress, Sophia Elizabeth; they had four children who were authors, among them Ferdinand Albert I. Ferdinand had several children, but no authors. One of these, Ferdinand Albert II., married Charlotte, not literary, whose father, uncle, aunt and grandfather were all authors. Among their nine children one, Elizabeth, published a number of translations and another, Ernst Ludwig, had literary taste and became the tutor of William of Orange.

The next generation is formed by the union with the literary Hohenzollerns and shows a fair proportion of authors, three in nine. After this none appeared. If these five generations of authors had accrued without any rejuvenation of blood, it would speak strongly for the effects of education. As it is, it could be used for an argument on either side. All that one can say is that heredity is satisfied. On the purely intellectual side there seems to be two rather serious deviations from Galton's law. The generation which contains the nieces and nephews of Frederick the Great is even more brilliant than would be expected. This may have been, as in the case of Frederick's own fraternity, either prepotency or superior opportunities of distinction, one can not tell which.

The next generation gives one of the worst results from the standpoint of heredity found anywhere, and we have quite the unexpected happening.

Two of the children, George William and Charles George, were mentally unfit to rule and consequently disinherited. In this connection it may be stated that a study of Denmark, Hesse Cassel and England has brought the author to the belief that this mental disease in the House of Brunswick was but a cropping out of the old Palatine insanity at the time of James I., of England. Christian VII, of Denmark, who was an uncontrolable imbecile and finally became mad, was a first cousin of George III., of England, who was insane during his later life, and Christian was also a first cousin once removed of the two little imbecile sons above mentioned, of Augusta, princess of Brunswick. Another more convincing bit of evidence in this connection is to be found in the neighboring House of Hesse Cassel. Here we find another who became insane and died in early manhood, and was a first cousin, once removed, of Christian VII. of Denmark. All these are related and only through the same source, the Palatine House, and since this Christian, of Hesse Cassel, is doubly descended from this suspected strain (Palatine House) it seems more than probable that we are dealing with an inherited insanity in all these cases. We may also mention Frederick William I., of Prussia, about whom Macaulay said: 'His eccentricities were such as had never been seen out of a mad house.' Frederick William was a first cousin of George