Charles Darwin's Health - Hereditary Disease

Hereditary Disease

Many of Darwin's children suffered from similarly vague illnesses for much of their early lives, but it has been speculated that part of this may have been simply because he encouraged a household where sickness was a form of attention and socialization. Darwin himself—concerned with heredity—wondered if he had passed on his generally infirm condition to his children and was especially interested if his marriage to Emma Wedgwood, a cousin, was not perhaps also responsible (his concerns later in life with the effects of inbreeding were potentially motivated by this personal aspect as well).

Read more about this topic:  Charles Darwin's Health

Famous quotes containing the words hereditary and/or disease:

    We bring [to government] no hereditary status or gift of infallibility and none follows us from this place.
    Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)

    In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.
    Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)