Heredity of the Sentiments and the Passions. 8 7 



addicted to drink, and died of chronic alcoholism, leaving seven 

 children. The first two of these died at an early age, of convul- 

 sions. The third became insane at twenty-two, and died an idiot 

 The fourth, after various attempts at suicide, fell into the lowest 

 grade of idiocy. The fifth, of passionate and misanthropic temper, 

 broke off all relations with his family. His sister suffers from 

 nervous disorder, which chiefly takes the form of hysteria, with 

 intermittent attacks of insanity. The seventh, a very intelligent 

 workman, but of nervous temperament, freely gives expression to 

 the gloomiest forebodings as to his intellectual future. 



Dr. Morel gives the history of a family living in the Vosges, in 

 which the great-grandfather was a drunkard, and died from the 

 effects of intoxication ; and the grandfather, subject to the same 

 passion, died a maniac. He had a son far more sober than him- 

 self, but subject to hypochondria, and of homicidal tendencies; the 

 son of this latter was stupid, idiotic. Here we see in the first 

 generation, alcoholic excess; in the second, hereditary dipsomania; 

 in the third, hypochondria ; and in the fourth, idiocy, and probable 

 extinction of the race. 



TreTat, in his work, Folie Lucide, states that a lady of regular life 

 and economical habits was subject to fits of uncontrollable dipso- 

 mania. Loathing her state, she called herself a miserable drunkard ; 

 and mixed the most disgusting substances with her wine but all 

 in vain, the passion was stronger than her wilL The mother and 

 the uncle of this lady had also been subject to dipsomania. 



Quite recently, Dr. Morel had again an opportunity of proving 

 the hereditary effects of alcoholism, in the ' children of the Com- 

 mune.' He inquired into the mental state of 150 children, ranging 

 from ten to seventeen years of age, most of whom had been taken 

 with arms in their hands behind the barricades. ' This examina- 

 tion,' he says, ' has confirmed me in my previous convictions as to 

 the baneful effects produced by alcohol, not only in the individuals 

 who use this detestable drink to excess, but also in their descend- 

 ants. On their depraved physiognomy is impressed the threefold 

 stamp of physical, intellectual, and moral degeneracy.' * 



1 For all the facts here cited, see Morel, Traiti des Dcgentrescentes, p. 103 ; 



Dr. Despine, Psychologie Naturelle, tome ii. 525 528 ; tome iii. 141 ; see also 

 Lucas, i. 476, seq., and ii. 776. 

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