CHAPTER II. 



INSANITY AND ALCOHOLISM. 



" The case is hard where a good citizen, 

 * x 



x x # ^ 



Is doomed to pay the lamentable score 

 Of guilt accumulated long before. 



::- * ::- :: # 



Quite undeservedly doomed to atone, 

 In other times, for actions not his own." 



Theognis. 



THE question of deterioration does not apply 

 only to the Army and Navy. The fact is just as 

 evident, in civil life, as it is on the lower deck, 

 or in the barrack room ; indeed it is noticeable 

 in all classes of the community. From the 

 statesman to the chimney-sweep, there seems to 

 be the same lack of physical and mental fitness. 



Critics seem to have directed the greater part 

 of their attention to the labouring class, and yet, 

 although it may be true that incapacity is 

 rendered more conspicuous in those who have to 

 depend upon physical labour for a livelihood, 

 the percentage of physically unfit is not found 

 to be greater in that class than in any other. 



The ranks of pauperism are not necessarily 

 recruited from the working classes alone ; there 

 are very many paupers who have never been 

 bona-fide workers in any grade of society, but have 

 drifted from all classes ; they are the " old man 

 of the sea " to the workers, but they no more 

 belong to them than they do to the aristocracy 



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