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HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



ment, are common among children of this class. 

 Mental heredity is equally clear. Mental insta- 

 bility and mental feebleness are common. From 

 this mental heritage result : (i) diminution of 

 longevity ; (2) the race with the evil entail must 

 die out ; (3) where this heredity is retarded, or 

 accelerated, by union with different currents of 

 heredity, strange compounds result, as, for exam- 

 ple, if to alcoholic-heredity is united a heritage of 

 insanity, idiocy and all grades of criminals, pau- 

 pers, and mixed insanities follow." 



Ribot says: "The passion known as dipso- 

 mania, or alcoholism, is so frequently transmitted 

 that all are agreed in considering its heredity as 

 the rule. Not, however, that the passion for drink 

 is always transmitted in that identical form, for 

 it often degenerates into mania, idiocy, and hal- 

 lucination. Conversely, insanity in the parents 

 may become alcoholism in the descendants. This 

 continued metamorphosis plainly shows how near 

 passion comes to insanity, how closely the succes- 

 sive generations are connected, and, consequently, 

 what a weight of responsibility rests on each in- 

 dividual." 1 Dr. Morel, of Paris, had " an opportu- 

 nity of proving the hereditary effects of alcoholism 

 in the 'children of the Commune.' He inquired 

 into the mental state of one hundred and fifty 



1 Heredity, Ribot, p. 85. 



