MEMOIR ON PARENTAL ALCOHOLISM 5 



The meanings which we gave to these words are stated 

 on p. 3 of our paper : 



* By the term alcoholism in this paper is not necessarily- 

 meant the " chronic alcoholism " of medical literature. We 

 believe that many, possibly the majority, of our drinking 

 class would be found to suffer more or less from chronic 

 alcoholism ; they at any rate in the opinion of trained 

 social workers — assisted by the judgement of police and 

 employers — are drinking more than is good for them or 

 their homes. On the other hand by ** sober " is not meant 

 total abstinence, but cases in which the use of alcohol is so 

 moderate, if it exists, that it does not appear to interfere 

 with the health^ of the individual or the welfare of the 

 home.' 



Now it is perfectly open to Dr. Sturge and Sir Victor 

 Horsley to say that they do not agree with this definition of 

 drinking arid sober, but they have no right to say that we 

 are misusing a term, the use of which we have at the outset 

 defined. And we venture to think that most practical men 

 will be willing to accept such definitions as we have given. 

 The evil of alcohol drinking is either graded or it is not. 

 If you assume it to be graded, then there is no doubt into 

 which of our two classes the bulk of those parents must 

 fall whose alcoholism is asserted by Sir Victor Horsley to 

 affect markedly the physique and intelligence of the 

 children, and the effect ought to be visible in the statistics. 

 If you do not accept the graded effect of alcohol then you 

 are driven to the view that whether one glass of beer a day 

 be drunk, or the parent be daily in a state of drunkenness, 

 the influence on the offspring remains the same. In the 



* Sir Victor Horsley and Dr. Sturge confidently assert {B. M. J., January 4, 

 191 1, p. 73) that we know nothing about whether the health was or was not 

 interfered with by the alcohol, yet the authors of the Report directly tell us 

 that they have put under the heading of ' drunken ' families all those who in 

 a less or greater degree suffered in health, diet, and morals from the presence 

 of drinking habits. 



