38 A REPLY TO CRITICISMS OF THE 



The general conclusions we have so far reached — and 

 none of the criticism poured out on us in the least weakens 

 my confidence in their general truth — are : 



(i) That if the population be divided into the sober and 

 the drinking sections, there is no marked influence on the 

 physique and mentality of the offspring produced by the 

 alcoholism of the parents. The toxic action asserted to 

 exist by Dr. Saleeby, Sir Victor Horsley, and Dr. MacNichoU 

 has been grossly exaggerated for the purpose of propagandist 

 effect. 



(2) The association of alcoholism with tuberculosis, 

 epilepsy, insanity, mental defect, deformity, dwarfism, &c., 

 in soifte stocks cannot for a moment be denied. The as- 

 sumption, however, that every association is causation is 

 the rock upon which most of the pseudo-scientific work of 

 temperance fanatics has been shipwrecked.^ A careful 

 statistical examination has shown us that in cases of 

 extreme alcoholism the insanity or mental defect as a rule 

 antedates the alcoholism. Since writing the Second Study 



he had written a letter on the subject to the Journal of the Society for the 

 Study of Inebriety. It does not appear, however, to have been yet published 

 by the Editor of that journal. 



1 If ridicule could kill want of logic, this desirable end would be achieved 

 by such a letter as that of Dr. Charles Mercier in the B. M. y., Jan. 21, 191 1, 

 p. 165. I venture to quote some sentences from it : — 



* My suggestion, that the diminished use of alcohol is responsible for the 

 increase of appendicitis, was made, in common with my other suggestions, as 

 an application of the great principle of causation— /i?^/ hoc, ergo propter hoc — ■ 

 discovered by those Iceen observers of nature, the schoolmen of the Middle 

 Ages, and adopted with such striking results by medical practitioners in 

 assigning the causes of disease. . . . Teetotalers have taught us to appreciate 

 the lethal powers of alcohol, and to recognize how those who use beer and 

 wine, like those who use fusees : 



All grow by slow degrees, 



Brainless as chimpanzees, 

 Meagre as lizards ; 



Go mad, and beat their wives; 



Plunge, after shocking lives, 



Razors and carving-knives 

 Into their gizzards.' 



