APPENDIX M 28s 



The Separate Report of Mr Kesteven. 



I cannot sign the Report, as it does not express my views. 

 The following statement reproduces the information which I 

 have gathered from the discussions of the Committee, or have 

 found confirmed thereby. I have cut it down as much as I can 

 with perspicuity. W. Henry Kesteven. 



I. Inebriety is a form or variety of morbid deficiency of the 

 power of self-control, which shows itself in the unrestrained or 

 inefficiently controlled indulgence in a craving for the sensation of 

 well-being caused by the use of alcohol, or such like drugs. 



II. This morbid deficiency of the power of self-control may 

 be inborn, that is, hereditarily transmitted, or it may be acquired 

 by the individual. 



III. The craving for the sensations of well-being, in other 

 words, for the gratification of the animal sensations, is inborn in 

 the race. 



IV. The use of alcohol, or any other drug, is always an 

 acquired habit. 



V. Excessive use of alcohol results, in the individual, in the 

 poisoning of all the tissues of his body, whether those tissues be 

 somatic or germinal. 



VI. Such toxic action impairs the nutrition metabolism of the 

 somatic tissues, producing degenerative changes, and taints and 

 diminishes the vitality of the germinal tissues.' 



1 The proof of the fact asserted in the last sentence is found, first, 

 in the fact that the germinal matter is part of the parental body ; 

 secondly, is supplied with nutrition by the same means as the other 

 tissues ; and thirdly, its protoplasm is subject to the same intoxication 

 as that of the somatic tissues. This fact is also shown in lead 

 poisoning. No one will dispute that alcohol will act as a poison, and 

 produce definite degenerative changes in the metabolism and 

 structure of the organs of the body that are actively engaged in the 



