322 



THE ABNORMAL MAN. 



Evidence of 



Transmitted 



Inebriety. 



a Demon. 



few of these can be exposed with safety to the 

 ordinary temptations of youth. 



It requires no argument or compilation of 

 statistics to prove to the intelligent reader that 

 the tendencies toward intemperance and abnormal 

 appetites for narcotics are frequently transmitted 

 from parent to child. Every community has its 

 own unanswerable argument. Thousands of men 

 and women are conscious of an inborn abnormal 

 desire for opium, morphine, liquor or tobacco. 

 Many who never drank a glass of liquor in their 

 lives or smoked a cigar have an inordinate desire 

 that makes narcotics a constant temptation. 

 Thousands of otherwise well-born men and 

 women are constantly menaced by this inherent 

 desire and must either fight it continually or yield 

 to its destructive power. 



One of America's most widely known temper- 

 ance lecturers said to me only a few weeks be- 

 fore his untimely death: "Riddell, if I had one 

 drop of liquor tonight I could not stop this side 

 of hell. I have not touched the accursed stuff in 

 fifteen years, but the demon still holds a death 



grip upon me. 



* * * 



No, I will not yield. I 



will fight it as long as I live, but I am on the 

 brink of hell tonight." It was at the close of one 

 of his most inspiring lectures, and for two hours 

 we walked in the moonlight and I pleaded with 

 him to give up the use of tobacco, go to the Hot 

 Springs and take treatment and get the nicotine 

 out of his system in order that his brain and 

 nerves might become normal ; otherwise, at some 

 unguarded moment I feared he might yield. He 

 assured me he would never touch "the accursed 



