the despair of a household, the puzzle of the doctors. "Not really
sick," say the latter to the discouraged husband, seeking to adjust
himself to his wife, "only neurasthenic. All the organs are O.K." To
differentiate between a lowered energy and imaginary illness or laziness
is a hard task to which this husband is usually unequal. Though some
show of duty and kindness remains, love dies in such a household. And
the very effort to give sympathy where doubt exists as to the
genuineness of the affliction is painful and increases the chasm between
wife and husband.

That some of the sweetest marriages result where the wife is of this
type does not change the general situation that such a marriage is an
increased risk. Should a man knowingly marry such a woman? The question
is futile in the overwhelming majority of cases. He will marry her, is
the answer. For the fascinating woman is frequently of this type.
Witness the charm of the neuropathic eye with its widely dilated pupil
that changes with each emotion, the mobile face,--delicate, with a play
of color, red and white, that is charming to look at, but which the grim
physician calls "Vasomotor instability." There is nothing neutral about
this type; she is either very lovely or a freak.

So all advice in the matter is of little avail. And racially speaking it
is good that it is of no avail. I believe firmly that such a woman is
more often the mother of high ability than her more placid sister; that
something of the delicacy of feeling and intensity of reaction of
neurasthenia is a condition of genius. We are too far away from any real
knowledge of heredity to advise for or against marriage in the most of
cases on this basis, and certainly we must not repeat Lombroso and
Nordau's errors and call all variations from stupidity degeneration.