descendants at birth and their development during the first m of life among total abstainers, on one side, and among mod drinkers and drunkards, on the other, were made by Laitinen published in the proceedings of the XIIth Anti-Alcohol Con By drunkards, Laitinen understands persons who daily con more than one glass of beer. He finds the children of total absta to have greatly the advantage over those of moderate drinker: that the same is true of the children of moderate drinkers comp with those of drunkards (who consume more than one glass of daily).

Henrik Berg, in his "Instruction in Alcohology," settles matter summarily in this fashion: "A family poisoned by al dies out as a rule in the third generation. The survivors are fe minded, fools or idiots."

The method indicated by the foregoing examples of investig the descendants of alcoholics, and if these be found subnormal to ignate alcohol the etiological factor, is supplemented by an method of reaching the same aim. It proceeds an existing normality manifesting itself in different ways and makes ascendants (forbears) of the subnormal the objects of the s in regard to the appearance of alcoholism among them.

Among the better-known investigations of this sort is th Bunge, who has brought together some material to prove tha inability of women to suckle their children is an expressio general degeneration due to an immoderate use of alcohol by forefathers.

ʼn these questions is flooded with figures exges of alcoholics of previous generations in psy, the deaf and dumb, criminality, etc. ifferent way Bezzola would prove the relation m and especially to acute intoxication. He ar's and during Lent, which are the popular unk in Switzerland, more idiots than normal

The same is true, according to this author, nects the phenomenon with the wine harvest. st and September better conditions are found. ed: "The healthy work of the rural popu1 habits of life among the tourists leave little excesses; the holidays are fewer," etc. This ola was presented before the VIIIth InterCongress, Vienna, 1901, and is printed in its a discussion of it a physician made the asserè district of lower Austria teachers are well ɔ of less gifted pupils indicates a good grape e!

al writers of alcohol literature ascribe the 1 the germ plasm only to acute intoxication . Nevertheless, Laitinen believes to have nents on animals that decidedly small doses effect. The quantity of alcohol used correserson to a small glass of beer daily. (XIth cohol Congress).

scientific men believe they can reason from

gist, has see

of the damage cat sed by iconol in the vidual to doubt seriously that this evil must put its stamp also the offspring, even though they must concede that so far this ca be proven clearly and beyond power of contradiction by statist

Having thus briefly outlined the current conception of blastophoric effect of alcohol and the facts and axiomatic ass tions which are believed to justify it, it is proper to conside objections that can be raised not only against the validity o proof adduced from the facts at hand, but also against the bability in general of any blastophoric (germ-plasm destro effects of alcohol.

To begin with, several circumstances must be considered w most of the authors wholly overlook. When one proceeds instance, as Dugdale in The Jukes and Lidström have done taking a male progenitor who is alcoholic and paying no hee the female progenitor and to the admixture of all the fo blood which makes it possible for a family to build up one gener after another, one has admittedly foregone the possibility of ju how far any causative relation whatsoever can be supposed to between the alcoholism of the parents, grand-parents, etc., and defectiveness of the offspring. In order to arrive at correct ment it is necessary to prepare and study not only family tree genealogical tables.

The unusual number of members of Juke family and truly astounding worthlessness make a certain impression, t sure, in spite of a defective method of presentation; but the cited by Lidström, which brings out the scarcely remarkable that one alcoholic parent had two tuberculous children and

subnormality or some constitutional psychic earson shows that among the inmates of priates in England about 64 per cent. suffer enital psychic defects. Perhaps the figures nerally applied to alcoholic persons. But rate the degenerative effects of alcohol upon ar individuals are shown as "progenitors," it that chiefly the more extreme cases of ied from the point of view of heredity. In Demme, for instance, it is evident already by the author that they contradict the proof For of the 10 alcoholic families mentioned degenerate offspring, it was stated that the these families were insane, epileptic, feeblethey themselves were temperate. In such of the offspring indicated a degeneration mily as a whole; and nothing justifies the sative relation between it and the alcoholism Le members of the family. In other words, fusion between cause and effect. Under such more noteworthy that even the most serious xtbooks and essays, not to mention popular cases or others of the same kind and draw s from them.

in cases of constitutional abnormality alformations, hereditary deaf and dumbness, tention directed to the necessity of finding

curs in the father, whether he is simply an

glass o same a

equally Th

relation

ascenda

alcoholi is regard The per anything

tained in

not subn second r

family fr

An e fathers o

known to

the condi For it is p children in

abused al

abuse of a psychic su percentage that for mo probable pi by the fatl already stat

same author's conclusions from experiments upon animals equally valuable.

The second method by which it is sought to establish relation between alcohol and degeneracy, concerns itself with ascendants of notoriously abnormal or subnormal individuals. W alcoholism is found in these ascendants, the relation in ques is regarded as established. Here two palpable mistakes are m The percentage of alcoholics among the descendants does not p anything in a given case unless a corresponding percentage is cained in the same manner of the ascendants of individuals who not subnormal and belong to the same group of the population. second mistake is that no respect is paid to the freedom of family from the other kinds of notorious defects.

An example will make this plain: Because 25 per cent. of athers of subnormal (slightly feeble-minded) school children known to abuse alcohol, no relation is thereby established betw he condition of these children and the alcoholism of the fath For it is possible that an investigation of the fathers of the remai hildren in the school might show that 25 per cent. of them like bused alcohol. The conclusion from this would be rather buse of alcohol by the father does not play any part in causi sychic subnormality in his children. On the other hand, if ercentage of the fathers of the subnormal children were 50 hat for mothers 25, no stronger proof would be gained, not eve robable proof, of a causative relation between the use of alc y the father and the subnormality of their offspring. For lready stated, it is absolutely imperative to try and connect