tain. If one asks directly many become offended. Some hesitate to speak 

 of the '"black sheep" in the family; and the black sheep themselves may 

 magnify the failings of others. Often black sheep are not as black as 

 painted. Without knowing the facts in the case, we should not be too 

 severe on the man who drinks or the man who requires the use of tobacco 

 for his well-being, as he believes. 



A large chart was shown of six generations since the original English 

 immigrants, the relationship now consisting of several hundred, but only 

 a few branches are more or less known. 



Here we are at ome in the midst of things. There are all sorts of 

 deteriorating factors, including narcomania. The alcohol problem crops out 

 all over one-half of the chart. 



Some remember the days of "'free whiskey" when everybody drank 

 and when it was no disgrace to be drunk. Today there is a different senti- 

 ment and one may well ask. Why does an apparently sensible man drink 

 and drink to excess? Why does he drink to excess occasionally or not 

 quite to excess at all times? To say a man drinks because he wants to is 

 not a satisfactory reply. 



Many patent medicines are full of alcohol and their effect on the body 

 is that of alcohol. Some men who are ashamed to go into a saloon, or to 

 call for plain whiskey, use nostrums that are compelled to pay the whiskey 

 tax. Such preparations are used because they give ease: the man or 

 woman using them "feels better". As in the case of plain alcohol, the dose 

 must gradually be increased, or more frequently repeated, to get the de- 

 sired effect, that of a sedative. 



Many of the subjective complaints of the men and women who use 

 alcohol are similar to those of neurasthenics and hysterics, so called. 

 Many complain of "fear, moods, depression, sleeplessness, restlessness, 

 tremors, general weakness, tearing pains, anorexia, palpitation, etc." Ac- 

 cording to my observations many individuals who are regarded as neurotics 

 or neuropathies are dust victims, and because narcotics give relief, they 

 use them. A study of the chart will show this. 



Red squares in the chart indicate a victim of narcomania. At times 

 the habit of using alcohol or morphia or even aspirin was acquired through 

 a doctor's prescription. Physicians nowadays are careful for whom they 

 prescribe narcotics; they fear habit-forming drugs. Many physicians 

 themselves are said to be victims: long and irregular hours, loss of sleep. 



