Benedict-Augustin Morel (1809–1873)
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Benedict-Augustin Morel
Combining concepts of acquired traits becoming fixed in germ plasm, drug toxicity, and hereditary transmission, Morel described a progressive generational degeneration starting with neurosis in the first generation, mental alienation in the next, and imbecility in the third, culminating in sterility in the fourth and final generation. What was being passed on was not a specific pathology but a susceptibility of the nervous system to disturbances originating from “overindulgence” of toxic substances such as alcohol.
Morel’s theory provided a parsimonious explanation for the etiology of insanity and social deviance (2) and generated research programs to demonstrate how paternal drinking affected progeny (3) and created the background for eugenics programs to improve humans through sterilization of those considered inferior (4).
Address reprint requests to Dr. Abel, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychology, Wayne State University, 275 E. Hancock, Detroit, MI 48201; [email protected] (e-mail). Image copyright 1954, by F.A. Davis.
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Benedict-Augustin Morel
1. Morel BA: Traité des Degenerescences Physiques, Intellectuelles et Morales de l’espece Humaine. Paris, Masson, 1857Google Scholar
2. Lombroso C: Crime, Its Causes and Remedies. Boston, Little, Brown, 1918Google Scholar
3. Abel EL: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. New York, Plenum, 1984Google Scholar
4. Pick D: Faces of Degeneration. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1989Google Scholar