4 INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL ALCOHOLISM 



mental conditions is not essential, the absence of any 

 markedly differentiated physical or mental condition in 

 the parents other than the alcoholism is essential. We 

 took two sets of data, the one series from Manchester, the 

 other series from Edinburgh. In the first series one child 

 in each family, whether the parents were temperate or 

 intemperate, was mentally defective. This does not, 

 therefore, differentiate the two classes, and it was per- 

 fectly reasonable on this basis to inquire whether the 

 alcoholism emphasized the bad health, poor mentality, or 

 other characters of the offspring. Mr. Keynes's statement 

 that the Manchester and Edinburgh data ' relate to two 

 entirely distinct problems ' is not correct. They relate 

 to two different sets of material, selected in different 

 manners, but they are applied to precisely the same 

 problem, i.e. to ascertain whether alcoholism or sobriety 

 under a common environment produces marked differences 

 in the physique or mentality of the children. 



Mr. Keynes summarily dismisses the Manchester data 

 on the grounds (i) that no details are given of the manner 

 in which the data were collected, and (ii) that the number 

 of cases was somewhat small. As the number of cases is 

 invariably larger than that provided by the Edinburgh 

 data, which our critic considers worthy of lengthy dis- 

 cussion, we are thrown back on his first ground for that 

 dismissal. On this point Mr. Keynes could have obtained 

 further information by inquiry. The data were collected 

 by the late Dr. Ashby, a very well-known physician of 

 ^lanchester, who interviewed the relatives of the children 

 brought for inspection. Dr. Ashby was eminently capable 

 of judgement in these matters, and he was assisted by 

 reports made by the school teachers, the school-attendance 

 officers, and the superintendent of the special schools who 



