APPENDIX G 257 



blood is another thing. That, indeed, is a problem of heredity. 

 If alcohol does so affect the germ that the child is mentally 

 abnormal, then here we have a variation, not a modification, as 

 when the foetus is affected. Variations tend to be transmitted, 

 and therefore a race that used alcohol would on that hypothesis 

 become more and more insane and epileptic till it became extinct. 

 I am not aware that South Europeans have become so insane and 

 epileptic as to be threatened with extinction. We must remember 

 that there are no nervous tissues in the germ.^ 



^ Extract from Article by the Author, Lancet, 14th October 1899. 



