ALCOHOLISM 275 



subject has been very frequently discussed we shall restrict 

 ourselves to a brief survey. 



(i) It is certain that the habit of using large quantities of 

 alcohol is prejudicial to health, " poisons the system," and 

 becomes a pathogenic factor. What constitutes abuse varies, 

 of course, with the individual and his conditions of life. There 

 seems to be little utility in labelling alcohol a " poison," 

 though it is a poison in large doses. Arsenic is a poison to man, 

 yet Gautier seems to prove that the presence of minute quantities 

 of arsenic in various organs of the body is a condition of health. 

 Both as regards arsenic and alcohol, it is the amount and the 

 frequency of the doses that tell. 



(2) It is certain that abuse of alcohol is prejudicial to the 

 race by lessening in more ways than one the nutritive capacity 

 of mothers. Thus, to refer to one aspect only, the conclusion of 

 Prof. G. von Bunge's investigation of over 2,000 families is 

 that the increasing incapacity of mothers to nurse their children 

 is referable to chronic alcoholic poisoning continued for genera- 

 tions {Die zunehmende Unfdhigkeit der Frauen, ihre Kinder zu 

 stillen, 5th edition, Munich, 1907). 



(3) It is also certain that the alcoholic habit is prejudicial 

 to the race, not merely through custom and tradition, not 

 merely by affecting maternity, but directly through inheritance. 

 There are so many cases of unhealthy, insane, and criminal 

 persons among the offspring of drunkards, that all possibility 

 of coincidence is excluded. There is a causal connection. 

 The disastrous results may be manifested as nervous disorders 

 varying from hyper-excitability to dementia ; or as debility 

 and lack of developmental vigour, expressed, for instance, in 

 infantihsm, want of control, and imbecility ; or as structural 

 abnormalities, especially of the head and brain. The results 

 are so varied that they suggest that what is inherited is general 

 rather than specific ; the offspring of alcoholic parents are not 

 necessarily predisposed in any one particular direction, except 



