2 7 8 



THE ABNORMAL MAN. 



Dr. Guy's 

 Conclusions. 



Alcohol and 

 Insanity* 



community. Dr. Wm. A. Guy, F. R. S., says: 

 'The ratio of the insane to the sane criminals is 

 thirty-four times as great as the ratio of lunatics 

 to the whole population; or, if we take half the 

 population to represent the adults, which supply 

 the convict prisons, we shall have the criminal 

 lunatic in excess in the high proportion of 17 

 to i." 



Probably 70 per cent of all the insanity of the 

 earth has been caused directly or indirectly by the 

 use of narcotics. Most of what is now called 

 "hereditary insanity" had its origin in alcoholism 

 in preceding generations. Again, much of the 

 insanity that must be attributed directly to anxi- 

 ety, worry, mental overstrain and precocity, etc., 

 is indirectly caused by the use of alcohol. Finally, 

 thousands who cannot be classed among the hered- 

 itary insane receive their insane tendencies 

 through prenatal influences. Habitual alcohol- 

 ism in the parents, even where it does not pro- 

 duce any greater abnormality in them than occa- 

 sional intoxication, frequently results in the pro- 

 duction of idiotic, neurotic or insane offspring. 



