320 



THE ABNORMAL MAN. 



Demme's 

 Observations. 



Alcohol and 

 Prostitution. 



Parentage of 

 Erring Girls. 



posterity of the ten families of drinkers included 

 57 children. Of these, 25 died in the first weeks 

 and months of their lives ; six were idiots ; in five 

 a striking backwardness of their growth in size 

 was observed; five were affected with epilepsy, 

 and five with inborn diseases. Thus, of the 57 

 children of drinkers only 10, or 17.5 per cent, 

 had normal constitutions and healthful growth. 

 The ten sober families had 61 children, of which 

 five died in the first weeks; four were affected 

 with curable diseases of the nervous system, and 

 only two had inborn defects. Of the remaining 

 fifty 81.9 per cent were normal in their constitu- 

 tions and development. 



King Alcohol is the father of prostitution. 

 Drunkenness is as sure to produce lasciviousness 

 as fire is to produce heat. When a young man 

 begins drinking, no matter how pure his life, he 

 will soon become unchaste. Very few who use 

 narcotics to any extent are normal in their sexual 

 instincts. Even men who are not morally de- 

 linquent are rarely able to live pure lives if ad- 

 dicted to the use of liquor. 



Where fathers are brutalized by liquor the per- 

 verted tendencies are often fully transmitted. In 

 looking up the family history of 2,000 erring 

 girls it was found that 1,464 had drunken fathers, 

 and 1,140 drunke-n mothers. Among the scarlet 

 women of America 70 per cent are born from 

 parents who use narcotics; over 60 per cent of 

 them attribute their fall to drink and the ball 

 room. 



Prostitution is often hereditary. It may run 

 through many generations even where there is 



