INSANITY AND IMBECILITY. 275 



etc., while fully 2215 per cent are caused by the 

 use of alcohol, opium, morphine, laudanum, and 

 other narcotics. Wherever wreck and ruin are 

 being wrought, King Alcohol does his full share. Mindedness. 

 Just what part of this 22.5 per cent is caused by 

 the use of narcotics by prospective mothers has 

 not been very accurately determined, but perhaps 

 fully one-third. A much larger number of fath- 

 ers use liquor than mothers, but its use by the 

 mother during embryonic development seems 

 especially productive of these abnormal condi- 

 tions. Doubtless fully 50 per cent of the feeble- 

 mindedness that has descended as a hereditary 

 taint, and was therefore included as a hereditary 

 cause, was primarily the result of alcoholism. 



The greatest immediate cause of epilepsy and 

 feeble-mindedness, particularly the former, is the Abortive Drags 

 use of poisonous drugs for the prevention oi con- an< * 

 ception and in the production of abortion. It is 

 estimated that no less than 32 per cent of the 

 300,000 epileptic and idiotic persons in the United 

 States have been so caused. This means that 

 96,000 of these unfortunates have been produced {^f e pJ 

 by willful violation of nature's laws. What an 

 appalling crime to be perpetrated in the midst of 

 culture and religious influences! What an abuse 

 of the science of medicine! What a legacy for 

 succeeding generations ! 



The 96,000 epileptic and feeble-minded chil- 

 dren that are the direct product of this fiendish 

 practice represent but a very small fraction of 

 its evil effects. Hundreds of thousands have been 

 stillborn from this cause, or born weaklings, only 

 to eke out a miserable existence or fill a prema- 



