526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



pression on the offspring. In one instance an exceedingly nervous 

 lady was greatly frightened by an intoxicated soldier. She gave 

 birth to a boy that had all the signs of intoxication. He lived 

 until twelve years of age, was an imbecile, and had all the marks 

 of a person perpetually intoxicated; he staggered, and would 

 scream out from time to time, without cause or reason. Another 

 case is reported where the mother saw her husband stupidly in- 

 toxicated for the first time, and gave birth to an imbecile boy, 

 who was stupid and acted as his father did when poisoned with 

 spirits. It is often difficult to trace these peculiar symptoms, 

 which resemble intoxication, to a similar state in one or both 

 parents at the time of conception ; but in most cases the proba- 

 bility of such a state is greatly strengthened by general circum- 

 stances and various marks of alcoholic defects and deformities. 

 I find myself forced to conclude that these symptoms are inher- 

 ited as special pathological states, representing the parents at the 

 time of conception. Why they do not occur in all cases is not 

 clear, but the fact is beyond question that children of inebriates 

 bear marks of defective organization of almost infinite degree, 

 form, and variety. 



Beyond this range of cases there is another class, less common, 

 yet with a distinct history and symptoms. Unlike the first class, 

 they are persons who have average brain-power, and in many in- 

 stances are men of genius and positive force, with a peculiar nerve- 

 organization. They are usually temperate men, never using alco- 

 hol, yet under certain circumstances, and from some particular 

 excitement, act and appear as if fully intoxicated. 



In these cases some form of mental shock takes place, destroy- 

 ing the normal balance and bringing uppermost an inherited neu- 

 rotic defect. In some instances alcohol can not be tolerated with- 

 out producing nausea, vomiting, and extreme depression ; and yet 

 from some unknown cause, purely mental, they will suddenly ex- 

 hibit all the usual signs of intoxication, which pass off as quickly 

 as they came on. 



These cases come from inebriate parents or moderate drinkers, 

 and have inherited some defective nerve-organization which mani- 

 fests itself in this way. I have collected a number of these cases 

 and grouped them under two heads — one of inherited toxic states, 

 and the other of acquired toxic states. In the first class the notes 

 and histories I have gathered will serve as an outline for more 

 exhaustive studies, and they also suggest many new fields of psy- 

 chological heredity not yet explored. The following are histories 

 of some of these cases : 



First Case. — Joseph B , a farmer of fifty-four, temperate, 



a man of character and wealth, who had never used any kind of 

 spirits, suffered from a violent shock and alarm from a runaway 



