274 HEREDITY AND DISEASE 



(3) In interpreting the dismal records of the families of drunken 

 parents it is a mistake to attribute the whole result to the here- 

 ditary influence of alcoholism. It is necessary to make allowances 

 for cases in which the offspring " have been in the vineyard too." 

 They may be affected through the mother before and after birth, 

 by becoming early accustomed to doses of alcohol, and obviously 

 by suggestion and imitation, and also by the persistence of the 

 superorganic conditions which " drove the parents to drink." 

 The resultants of these factors may augment the inherited bias 

 or the inherited germinal defect. Where there has been no 

 direct inheritance the nurture-results may simulate the results of 

 transmission. 



The Ostiak forces vodka down his child's throat, and the 

 same happens nearer home. "Whisky-babies " occur in Merrie 

 England. But the mischief may begin further back ; even 

 before birth the mother may poison her child. 



Fere and others have described the disturbing effects which 

 followed injections of small quantities of alcohol into the develop- 

 ing egg of the fowl. Mairet, quoted by Debierre, found that 

 the offspring of an artificially intoxicated bitch by a sound 

 dog showed " alcoholic degeneration " and soon died. 



(4) Just as upbringing in an environment of intemperance 

 may bring about results which simulate direct inheritance, so 

 it should, we think, be frankly and responsibly recognised that 

 there is an occupational factor in the persistence of excessive 

 alcoholic habits. From certain occupations — dreary, unwhole- 

 some, underpaid, and what not — relief is sought in alcoholic 

 stimulants. As long as these conditions persist they are likely 

 to prompt successive generations to similar expedients, and this 

 must be borne in mind when we try to estimate how much 

 of so-called alcoholic degeneration is strictly speaking due to 

 inheritance. 



(5) It is certain that a tendency to intemperance is often 

 associated with other expressions of bodily or mental instability, 



