82 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



both parents are very shiftless practically all children are 

 ''very shiftless" or ''somewhat shiftless." Out of 62 oflf- 

 spring, 3 are given as "industrious" or about 5 per cent (Fig. 

 48). When both parents are shiftless in some degree about 

 15 per cent of the known offspring are recorded as industrious. 

 When one parent is more or less shiftless while the other is 

 industrious only about 10 per cent of the children are "very 

 shiftless." It is probable that both shiftlessness and lack 

 of physical energy are due to the absence of something which 

 can be got back into the offspring only by mating with in- 

 dustry. 



22. Narcotism 



The love of alcoholic drink, opium, etc., is commonly re- 

 garded as due solely to its use. It has even been asserted that 

 the "taste" is usually an acquired one; and we are assured 

 that drunkenness results from bad associates and imitation of 

 bad habits. Cases are cited of persons who, after an exem- 

 plary youth, have suddenly through drink been started on 

 the downward road. On the other hand there are those who 

 maintain that the desire for narcotics is a symptom of a neur- 

 asthenic tendency. "So long as there is a call for these 

 narcotics must our race be stamped as degenerate" (Gaupp 

 quoted by Mason, 1910). Says Lydston (1904, p. 200) 

 "Practically, then, inebriety means degeneracy, the subject 

 being usually primarily defective in nervous structure and 

 will-power. It is a noteworthy fact that the family histories 

 of dipsomaniacs are largely tinctured with nerve disorders. 

 Hysteria, epilepsy, migraine and even insanity are found all 

 along the line. In such cases inebriety is but one of the vary- 

 ing manifestations of bad heredity." Each of these con- 

 trasted views is partial. Whether a person who has taken a 

 first glass of alcoholic liquor shall take another is determined 

 largely by the effect upon him of the first. If the alcohol is 



