JVEW FACTS IN ALCOHOLIC HEREDITY. 



531 



exhausted and had all the feelings of one who had just suffered 

 from intoxication. The psychological student will find a rare 

 field of study in the temperance meetings of the day, particu- 

 larly where they are conducted and addressed by reformed 

 inebriates. 



These facts are along the line of every day's observation, and 

 are sustained by many collateral evidences. Beyond this are still 

 further ranges of facts, on the same psychological field, less com- 

 mon and more obscure. 



A pathological state has been observed, which I call uncon- 

 scious imitative inebriety, where persons, from the influence or 

 contagion of the surroundings or some unknown factor, are, to all 

 intents and purposes, intoxicated. Here, as elsewhere, a strong 

 substratum of heredity exists. I present the notes of two cases 

 which were sent me by accurate and very competent observers. 



One, J. H , was a lawyer, a delicate, nervous man, employed in 



the State Department, where a monotonous, exact range of duties 

 had been performed for many years. He was unable to use spirits, 

 from the headache it produced. Although his father was an in- 

 ebriate, he never could or would drink any form of alcohol. He 

 was a society man, and spent his evenings at the club. For sev- 

 eral years past it was noticed that, after an hour or more spent in 

 company of men who were drinking to intoxication, he would 

 take on their condition, and like them become intoxicated. He 

 would be with them hilarious or stupid, and use only coffee mod- 

 erately, while the others drank wine. Sometimes these states 

 would go so far as to make him stupid and unable to walk, and 

 he would need the assistance of a guide and carriage to get home. 

 The next morning he would have a headache. These occasions 

 were at first infrequent, then grew more common, until at present 

 he can not remain an hour in the company of any friend who is 

 intoxicated without appearing and acting like him. He is called 

 by his friends the "coffee-drunkard," for this reason. He will 

 be as stupid as any of them, and yet use nothing but coffee. He 

 would fall into this state more slowly if strangers were present, 

 and sometimes not at all, depending on some internal force that 

 prevented him from giving way. He affirmed that i\e sensation 

 was very pleasant, and he did not realize his own condition, but 

 was always conscious of enjoyment, until the party broke up and 

 he went home, when a feeling of misery and disgust came over him. 

 The physician who examined him in these states considered that 

 he was a perfect barometer of the mental surroundings, and that 

 after a certain point he gave himself up to a species of mesmeric 

 influence, making him do anything that the others did. 



Second Case. — A wealthy farmer and strong temperance man 

 was elected to Congress. He formed a strong attachment for a 



