INTEMPERANCE. 319 



in the descendants " of alcoholics than in their 

 parents, which indicates their intellectual degen- 

 eration." 



It is difficult to determine the exact proportion 

 of defective offspring from inebriate parents as 

 compared with the normal population. Careful 

 estimates, based upon the most reliable statistics 

 obtainable in Europe and America, indicate that 

 82.5 per cent of the children born of inebriate 

 parents die before the age of two, are defective Alcoholics, 

 from birth, are epileptic, feeble-minded, develop 

 into habitual alcoholics, prostitutes, become 

 criminals or go insane; while of the offspring of 

 the normal population (which of course includes 

 the abnormal) about 48.2 per cent are so affected. 

 Limited observations made among families where 

 alcoholic liquors or other narcotics have not been 

 used for two or more generations indicate that 

 less than 21 per cent of the offspring are defective 

 or can be classed with any of those mentioned. 



In other words, in 10,000 persons born from 

 intemperate and inebriate families we should ex- 

 pect to find 8,250 defective offspring; in 10,000 

 persons born from the normal population we 

 should expect to find 4,820 defective off spring ; Temperate ver- 

 while in 10,000 born from strictly temperate f am- sus Intemperate 

 ilies, only 2,100. Thus it will be seen that 60 

 per cent more of the offspring of inebriate or 

 intemperate parents die in infancy, are epileptic, 

 feeble-minded, or inherit alcoholic, insane or crim- 

 inal tendencies, than the offspring born from tem- 

 perate parents. 



Demme studied ten families of drinkers and 

 ten families of temperate persons. The direct 



