i82 THOMAS D. CROTHERS 



extinction. Criminals, paupers, inebriates, and others noto- 

 riously far down on the road to dissolution, are permitted to 

 marry and raise children freighted with a truly frightful legacy 

 of degeneration. Thejdangerous classes of every community, 

 the inmates of hospitals and asylums, are the living witnesses 

 of this blunder. 



Higher up in the social scale unions are constantly taking 

 place, the progeny of which must be defective and incapable 

 of Hving normal lives. Were it not for the higher laws of 

 nature, which continuously throw out and exterminate these 

 unfit, the race would soon be doomed to helpless degeneracy. 

 The children from these dangerous marriages are so far crip- 

 pled as to be unable to live normally and in accord with the 

 laws of health, and hence become diseased and subject to the 

 laws of dissolution. 



One of the saddest facts in the history of these degener- 

 ates is the very common sacrifice of noble women, who marry 

 them under the delusion that they are suffering from a moral 

 disorder which can be reached and cured by love and sym- 

 pathy. The marriage of chronic inebriates on this principle 

 is a crime and offense against the highest laws of humanity, 

 that should be punished by the severest penalties. In the 

 near future the state will recognize this fact in its laws. It 

 is this defective heredity, increased and intensified by mar- 

 riages with equally bad stock, that is the great fountain 

 spring from which inebriety comes. 



There are other active sources from which inebriety 

 springs that may be seen in every community. Thus star- 

 vation in childhood by overfeeding and underfeeding is fol- 

 lowed by defective nutrition and growth, and finally by ine- 

 briety. Degenerations and defective growths from diseases 

 of childhood slumber along to the period of maturity, then 

 break out into inebriety from the slightest exciting causes. 



Injury of the brain and nervous system in early and ma- 

 ture life, such as sunstroke, shocks, blows, and diseases which 

 are attended with delirium and unconsciousness, often develop 

 into inebriety. Want of rest, strains, and profound drains 

 of the body bring on exhaustion and changes in the nerve 

 centers that are often manifest in inebriety. The moment 



