Aye We a Declining Race ? 



I mentioned earlier that there was an under- 

 mining influence which seemed to be the cause 

 of men giving way to drink. In some cases, 

 shortly after marriage, the young man gradually 

 adopted irregular habits, seemed to lose all self 

 respect, frittered away his evenings at public- 

 houses, sacrificed all powers of volition, all 

 spontaneity and cheerfulness, all manliness, and 

 eventually dwindled down into a confirmed sot. 

 In some cases the wife was nearly as bad as the 

 man. This condition was hardly to be explained 

 as the result of alcohol alone, therefore I 

 suspected that it was another evil result of 

 sexual excess. 



This was evidently not a generally accepted 

 theory, for I had searched a good many tem- 

 perance works without being able to find any 

 allusions to it, until eventually I came across 

 Dr. Norman Kerr's work on " Inebriety," and 

 read as follows, p. 171: "A rarely acknow- 

 ledged but significant cause exciting to inebriety, 

 is sexual excess. In several cases I have been 

 consulted ; in one case by both husband and 

 wife, with reference to inebriety developed un- 

 expectedly within a few months after marriage, 

 a careful scrutiny led to the diagnosis of the 

 morbid antecedent, being prostration from 

 excessive intercourse. 



" These cases are amenable to treatment, and 

 on an observation of the principal prescription 

 moderation in conjugal rights recovery has 

 been complete. Cases in advanced life have 

 been under my care/' 



This brings the solution of another important 



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