The theory of degeneration found its first detailed presentation in the writings of Bénédict Morel (1809–1873), especially in his "Traité des dégénérescences physiques, intellectuelles et morales de l'espèce humaine" ("Treatise on Degeneration of the Human Species") (1857). This book was published two years "before" Darwin's "Origin of Species". Morel was a highly regarded psychiatrist, the very successful superintendent of the Rouen asylum for almost twenty years and a fastidious recorder of the family histories of his variously disabled patients. Through the details of these family histories, Morel discerned an hereditary line of defective parents infected by pollutants and stimulants; a second generation liable to epilepsy, neurasthenia, sexual deviations and hysteria; a third generation prone to insanity; and a final generation doomed to congenital idiocy and sterility. In 1857, Morel proposed a theory of "hereditary degeneracy", bringing together environmental and hereditary elements in an uncompromisingly pre-Darwinian mix. Morel's contribution was further developed by Valentin Magnan (1835–1916), who stressed the role of alcohol—particularly "absinthe"—in the generation of psychiatric disorders.