MEMOIR ON PARENTAL ALCOHOLISM ii 



Horsley and Dr. Sturge — who in their book have pledged 

 themselves to the great influence of the toxic effect of 

 parental alcoholism on the offspring — have directly twisted 

 our statements in a way which could only be of service to 

 their views if they were appealing to an audience who had 

 not read, or will not read our Memoir. We clearly and 

 directly attributed the higher death-rate of the children of 

 the alcoholic parents to a differential home environment — to 

 greater carelessness and accident in the drinking families. 

 Sir Victor and Dr. Sturge, notwithstanding this, thrust upon 

 us the statement that ' alcoholism causes no appreciable 

 detriment to the drunkard or to his children '. That is to 

 say, they make a statement, which, if they had read our 

 Memoir, they could only make to mislead those who had 

 not read it, namely, that we asserted that the differential 

 environment was no detriment to the children. If on the 

 average the man who uses alcohol is physically stronger 

 than the teetotaler, it is quite possible for his children to be 

 healthier and yet have a higher death-rate, and Sir Victor's 

 statement at the Medical Temperance Breakfast on this 

 point was not a serious treatment of the subject. 



Sir Victor Horsley and Dr. Sturge, without proper quo- 

 tations from our actual remarks as to defective home 

 environment and the gross carelessness which may be 

 associated with it, says that our suggestion that the greater 

 number of deaths of the children of alcoholic parents arises 

 only in a minor degree from toxic effect is erroneous, 

 because the accident rate among young children is not 

 sufficient to account for it. It will be noted that our critics 

 again modify our conclusions and restricts to accidents, pre- 

 sumably followed by fiscal inquiry (there are no inquests in 

 Scotland), the general statements we have made as to 

 accidents, gross carelessness, &c... or the general defects of 



