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 liability to illness rather than the illness itself, (ii) discussions of the homogeneous versus heterogeneous nature of familial transmission of disease, (iii) the relative value of direct versus indirect hereditary effects, (iv) the role of mothers versus fathers in transmitting liability, (v) possible environmental sources of familial clustering, and (vi) the transmission of age at onset of illness. All three medical genetic authors noted that insanity was among the more heritable of human disorders. Furthermore, Lithgow noted the importance of heritable influences on the non-psychotic forms of psychiatric illness rarely seen in asylums. This survey demonstrates substantial consilience in the topics of interest and conclusions of the nascent general medical and psychiatric genetics' communities in the 19th century.

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19世纪的医学遗传学作为精神遗传学发展的背景

本文探讨了外星人早期努力理解遗传在 19 世纪精神错乱病因学中的作用与新兴医学遗传学学科的平行努力之间的关系。我回顾了三部关于一般医学遗传学的专着：1814 年的亚当斯、1843 年的施泰瑙和 1889 年的利斯戈。在他们的著作与他们当代研究精神障碍的外星人的著作之间存在许多相似之处，包括 (i) 强调遗传基因的传播。对疾病的责任而不是疾病本身，(ii) 讨论疾病家族传播的同质性与异质性，(iii) 直接与间接遗传效应的相对价值，(iv) 母亲与父亲在传递责任中的作用, (v) 家族聚集的可能环境来源，以及 (vi) 发病年龄的传播。三位医学遗传学作者都指出，精神错乱是人类疾病中最容易遗传的疾病之一。此外，Lithgow 指出遗传影响对精神病院中很少见的非精神病形式的精神疾病的重要性。这项调查表明，在 19 世纪新生的普通医学和精神病学遗传学社区的兴趣主题和结论方面具有实质性的一致性。