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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hard-drinking man in the same body, and, after being in bis com- 

 pany for a few hours, would walk and talk like him. He would 

 talk foolishly, and stagger, and act identically like him ; but if 

 called away, he soon recovered and was as before, yet in his com- 

 pany he used no spirits, and only occasionally soda. This imitation 

 intoxication grew on him, and he seemed to fall into this state in 

 any drinking party where several were intoxicated. He was not 

 aware of his hilarity or stupidity in drinking company, and only 

 remembered that he could not use spirits. He was reported to 

 be intoxicated in the papers, and could with great difficulty make 

 any defense. He is still in office, but has learned to keep away 

 from all drinking men and state dinners where wine and intoxi- 

 cated and hilarious drinkers are present. A hereditary taint of 

 both insanity and inebriety was present in his case, I have made 

 another group of these cases, that brings out some facts seen in 

 other circles of life. They are cases of reformed men who show 

 signs of intoxication from the contagion of others who are intoxi- 

 cants. The following is an example : 



A prominent military man, who had drunk moderately during 

 the war, and had abstained from that time on, while attending a 

 dinner with his old comrades, where most of them were intoxicated, 

 suddenly became hilarious, made a foolish speech, and settled back 

 in his chair in a drunken state, and was finally taken home quite 

 stupid. He had not drunk any spirits, and had only used coffee 

 and water, and yet he had all the symptoms of the others, only 

 his was intoxication from contagion — the favoring soil had been 

 prepared long ago in the army. Another case was that of a man 

 who had been an inebriate years ago, but had reformed. He was 

 recently elected to office and gave a dinner to some friends. Among 

 them was a physician, who has been greatly interested in these 

 studies. He sent me a long report, the substance of which was 

 this : On the occasion referred to, many of the company became 

 partially intoxicated, and the host, who drank nothing but water, 

 became hilarious, and finally stupid with them. He was put to 

 bed, with every sign of intoxication, but recovered, and next morn- 

 ing had only a confused notion of these events. The third case oc- 

 curred four years ago. A reformed man, of twelve years' sobriety, 

 went on a military excursion with a drinking company, and, al- 

 though he drank nothing but lemonade, became as much intoxi- 

 cated as the others. This event was the subject of much comment 

 and loss to him, socially and otherwise, although he protested, and 

 others confirmed his statements, that he did not take any spirits 

 at this time. 



In these cases, as in the others mentioned, two conditions were 

 present : one, in which some special unknown nerve state was in- 

 herited, which readily reflected alcoholic states from contagions ; 



