Abstract:This article examines the relationship between the early efforts of alienists to understand the role of heredity in the etiology of insanity in the 19th century and the parallel efforts of the nascent discipline of medical genetics. I review three monographs on general medical genetics: Adams in 1814, Steinau in 1843, and Lithgow in 1889.Numerous parallels were seen between their writings and those of their contemporary alienists working on mental disorders including (i) an emphasis on the transmission of the … Show more
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