MARRIAGE AND DRUNKENNESS. 125 



instance, which is one of the most drunken countries 

 in the world, the people are deteriorating in a manner 

 positively alarming. Some years ago Dr. Magnus 

 Huss wrote of the Swedes : " The whole people are 

 degenerating : insanity, suicide, and crime are fright- 

 fully on the increase; new and aggravated diseases 

 have invaded all classes of society ; sterility and 

 premature death of children are much more common ; 

 and congenital imbecility and idiocy are in fearful 

 proportion to the numbers born." 



Here is a history of a family which well shows the 

 degenerating effect of drunkenness upon the stock. 

 First Generation. Father, a drunkard. 

 Second Generation. Son, a drunkard. Was dis- 

 gustingly drunk on his marriage day. 



Third Generation. Seven grandchildren. First died 

 of convulsions. Second died of convulsions. Third was 

 an idiot at twenty-two years of age. Fourth, melan- 

 choliac with suicidal tendency became demented. 

 Fifth, peculiar and irritable. Sixth has been insane 

 repeatedly. Seventh nervous and depressed, and in- 

 dulges in most despairing anticipations as to his life 

 and reason.* 



This drink-crave takes one of two forms, either 

 habitual drunkenness, as seen in the toper, who is at 

 all times when he can procure the drink more or less 

 intoxicated ; or dipsomania, in which the disease takes 

 on a periodic character, breaking out at intervals of 

 one to six or nine months, and rendering the individual 

 * " Traitd des D^g&i&escences " (Morel). 



