INTEMPERANCE. , 325 



prenatal conditions, some seem to entirely escape 



all injurious effects. Again, the evil effects are Varied Effects of 



r . , . ,. Alcoholism. 



often more pronounced in the second generation 



than in the first, so that those born of drunken 

 parents, even though they live temperate lives, 

 not infrequently parent children who early mani- 

 fest either an abnormal appetite for stimulants or 

 other morbid conditions. 



A New York family that I had occasion to 

 study furnishes a fair illustration of the fore- 

 going proposition. The father was a hard drinker 

 and was more or less under the influence of liquor 

 all the time; the mother was a very temperate, 

 sweet and spiritually minded woman. They had 

 seven children, two of whom died in spasms in 

 infancy. The eldest son was a beautiful charac- 

 ter, very much like his mother, clean, chaste and 

 devout, but was subject to a periodical mania for The Children of 

 drink that seemed almost irresistible, recurring a ^^ Drinker 

 about once in three months. The second son 

 drank but little, had no abnormal appetite for 

 stimulants, but was coarse, worthless, selfish and 

 sensual to an extreme. The third, a daughter, 

 was silly, emotional, had an ungovernable tem- 

 per and could not be trusted alone. The fourth, 

 also a daughter, was highly nervous, exception- 

 ally bright, pure-minded, well-behaved, and re- 

 sembled in disposition and temperament the 

 father's mother. The fifth was a son, who at the 

 age of 9 was strong, steady, a good student, and 

 up to that time had manifested no abnormalities. 

 This boy was said to resemble his mother's father. 



What has just been said relative to chronic 

 alcoholism is equally applicable to the influence 



