Now, when a case of persistent or recurrent but really irrecoverable insanity is studied, with respect not only to the life of the individual affected but to the lives of his ancestors, both remote and near, and in sufficient detail, it is seen that the causes of the present breakdown have been long and surely operative in those from whom he has inherited certain unfavorable characteristics, and at whose hands he has had his bringing up and education; and this even much more weightily than in himself or the life which he has lived. So far as the patient's own responsible life is concerned, the common causes, such as accident, infection, overwork, mental and moral strain--in fact, all the usual forms of stress--have, of course, been just as variously to blame, and in just the same way as they have been in the production of insanities in other individuals who finally recover. But even in respect to these latter, it probably may be most frequently discovered that the harmful effects of certain so-called exciting causes have been experienced, not because of the common emergencies and exigencies of life so much as because of some peculiar but unrevealed characteristics which have produced and maintained a sort of vicious maelstrom into which have been attracted all the detrimental influences that have accidentally or intentionally come within reach. For instance, such persons are almost always predetermined to grow up into harmful bodily and mental habits. Says Peterson: "Among all degenerates there is a taste or appetite for certain foods or drugs which tend to favor their dissolution (alcohol, morphine, cocaine, and the like)" (State Hospitals Bulletin, vol. i, p. 372). So also are they apt to be wrongly educated, or to draw around them harmful associates; to develop the most wearying and exhausting enthusiasms, or to choose a business and place of residence to which they are not adapted; to marry some one who will chiefly wear and burden them; to assume responsibilities and positions out of keeping with their native strength and endurance; in fact, to get entangled in all the affairs of life in just the very way calculated to bring about the one thing which should have been, by every known means, sought to be avoided. It is in this way that "physiological fate" unconsciously spins the web which ultimately fastens its own doom. That such a pernicious course should eventually result in disaster is no wonder at all; for when investigated deeply and comprehensively enough, it is seen that of all possible persons, such are, by birth, the very least calculated to endure the wear and tear thus engendered and maintained; while, as scarcely a word is ever heard and scarcely an effort is ever made as to the necessity for so training and educating and inspiring these people that the defects of heredity will be remedied, it follows that the most ordinary ventures of commonplace life are by far more dangerous to them than to their better-endowed fellows.[A] When properly endowed by heredity, and adequately bred and educated, it is almost beyond wonder, the amount and character of persistent stress which human nature can triumphantly endure. When otherwise, however, it is no wonder at all that sooner or later serious breakdown comes to pass.