ALCOHOLISM
PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE. An Outline of Eugenics. C. W. Saleeby, M.D., Ch.B., F.Z.S., F.R.S., Edinburgh; Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh; Member of Council of the Eugenics Education Society; of the Psychological Society, and of the National League for Physical Education and Improvement; Member of the Royal Institution and of the Society for the Study of Inebriety, etc., etc. Cassell & Co., Ltd., London, N. Y., Toronto and Melbourne. 1909.
A foremost authority, Dr. F. W. Mott, has independently reached the same conclusion as Dr. Branthwaite, that the chronic inebriate comes as a rule of an inherently tainted stock. Dr. Mott, however, reminds us that if alcohol is a weed killer, preventing the perpetuation of poor types, it is probably even more effective as a weed producer. Professor David Ferrier, the great pioneer of brain localisation, in reference to these people speaks of the “risk of propagation of a race of drunkards and imbeciles.” Dr. J. C. Dunlop, Inspector under the Inebriates Act, Scotland, states that his experience leads him to precisely the same conclusion as that of Dr. Branthwaite. Dr. A. R. Urquhart, an Asylum authority, affirms that chronic inebriety is largely an affair of habit, is a symptom of mental defect, disorder, or disease. Dr. Fleck, another authority, says, “It is my strong conviction that a large percentage of our mentally defective children, including idiots, imbeciles and epileptics, are the descendants of drunkards. Mr. McAdam Eccles, the distinguished surgeon agrees; so does Dr. Langdon Down, physician to the National Association for the Welfare of the Feeble-minded; so does Mr. Thos. Holmes, the Secretary of the Howard Association.”
MARRIAGE AND GENETICS. Laws of Human Breeding and Applied Eugenics. Chas. A. L. Reed, M.D., F.C.S.; Fellow of the College of Surgeons of America; Member and former president of the American Medical Association; Professor in the University of Cincinnati. The Galton Press, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The present demand for alcohol is generally the demand of the system for something with which to make up for some persistent defect. In other words, alcoholism is the sign and index of some form of degeneration. Thus the degeneracy that finds expression in alcoholism in one generation may be manifested in the next in the form of epilepsy, feeble-mindedness, insanity, immorality, or criminality. Unfortunately, alcoholism does not seem to lessen the fecundity of its victims. The quality of their progeny is, however, progressively lowered. It is due to the combined influence of transmitted degeneracy and the pernicious effect of environment. As a genetic factor, alcoholism, considered in its immediate relation to the marriage state may be summarised as follows:—
1—The chronic alcoholist generally develops lowered sexual efficiency.
2—General failure of sexual power, associated with strong desire, generally manifested by alcoholics, often results in sexual promiscuity, associated with perversion.
3—Progressive alcoholism destroys the normal psychic type and thus breaks up family ties.
4—Lowered general efficiency of alcoholics tends to pauperism and crime.
5—Lowered general resistance of alcoholics makes them the easier prey of infections and shortens their expectancy of life.
6—Alcoholism is a germinal defect, the degeneracy underlying which is transmitted in some form to 100% of the progeny of two alcoholic parents.
Marriage with or between degenerates of the alcoholic type is advised against and should be prohibited by law. P. 125–126.
Pauline Tarnowsky in Etudes Anthrope metriques sur le Prostitutees 1887 gives figures derived from measurements of fifty prostitutes in Petrograd in which she found four-fifths of her cases were offspring of alcoholic parents while one fifth were the last survivors of very large families.
THE PRACTICE OF OBSTETRICS. In Original Contributions by American Authors. Edited by Reuben Peterson, M.D.
A chronic state of intoxication may be found in patients (Mothers) with such bad habits as alcoholism, morphinism, cocainism, etc., and in sufferers of trade poisoning, plumbism, nicotism of workers in tobacco factories, etc. Most of these diseases are characterized by a tendency to abortion and a high infantile mortality and morbidity. P. 368.
It is generally admitted that the effect of chronic alcoholism upon pregnancy is most harmful. On account of the frequency with which drunkards are afflicted with venereal diseases, especially syphilis, it is almost impossible to obtain reliable statistics and exact figures, but the fact has been established that chronic alcoholism predisposes the woman to abortion, and that the children of dipsomaniac parents show a strikingly large percentage of malformations and mental abnormalities, especially imbecility and epilepsy. P. 370 (Hugo Ehrenfest, M.D.)
THE PATHOLOGY OF THE FETUS. Aldred Scott Warthin, M.D. (The Practice of Obstetrics, in original Contributions by American Authors, Ed. by Reuben Peterson, M.D.)
Of the antenatal treatment of fetal diseases we at present know little or nothing, but there can be no doubt that a wonderful field is here offered to the medicine of the future. According to our present knowledge such germinal and fetal therapeutics must be chiefly in the line of prevention. We are already in a position to apply some knowledge toward this end. The effects upon the fetus of intoxications, such as plumbism, alcoholism, etc., may be avoided. The production of syphilitic offspring may be restricted, and our knowledge of the later effects upon the fetus of certain diseases, or pathologic states of one or both parents may be utilized toward the bringing into existence of progeny under such conditions as to escape such evils. Our knowledge of heredity, of morbid conditions and predispositions should also be brought to bear upon the question of marriage and fitness to produce healthy children. Moral, as well as physical considerations should here be gravely weighed. The health of parents, the hygiene of pregnancy throughout its entire course, etc., are important factors in the improvement of the race, to which the coming civilization and the new medicine must give increasing attention. P. 535.
THE SEXUAL LIFE OF WOMAN IN ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND HYGIENIC ASPECTS. E. Heinrich Kisch. Rebman Co., New York.
A woman with a tendency to alcoholism should under no circumstances be allowed to marry. In the cases, fortunately rare, in which the drink craving exists in women, marriage is even more undesirable than it is in the case of men similarly afflicted, for the female drunkard is in a position in which she can mishandle and neglect her children throughout the entire day. P. 258.
RASSENVERBESSERUNG. Translated from the Dutch of Dr. J. Rutgers. Second Edition. Dresden, 1911.
Pelman examined 709 of the 834 descendants of an alcoholic vagrant, named Ada Inke, who died in 1740. Among these were found 106 illegitimate children, 142 were vagrant beggars, 64 were charity dependents, 181 prostitutes, 96 were tried for various offenses, among these 7 were for murder. These descendants during 75 years cost the State 5,000,000 marks. P. 97.
August Forel, who for years was the psychiatrist at the head of a large insane asylum at Zurich, Switzerland, has this to say about the effects of narcotic poisons and alcohol in particular: “The offspring tainted with alcoholic blastophthoria suffer various bodily and physical anomalies, among which are dwarfism, rickets, a predisposition to tuberculosis and epilepsy, moral idiocy in general, a predisposition to crime and mental diseases, sexual perversions, loss of suckling in women, and many other misfortunes. But what is of much greater importance is the fact that acute and chronic alcoholic intoxication deteriorates the germinal protoplasm of the procreators.”
MICHAEL F. GUYER, Ph.D., Professor of Zoology, University of Wisconsin in “Being Well Born.”
In an investigation on the effects of parental alcoholism on the offspring, Sullivan (Journal of Mental Science, Vol. 45, 1899) gives some important figures. To avoid other complications he chose female drunkards in whom no other degenerative features were evident. He found that among these the percentage of abortions, still-births and deaths of infants before their third year was 55.8% as against 23.9% in sober mothers. In answer to the objection that this high percentage may be due merely to neglect, and not to impairment of the fetus by alcoholism, he points out the fact, based on the history of the successive births, that there was a progressive increase in the death-rate of offspring in proportion to the length of time the mother had been an inebriate. P. 169.
A TEXT BOOK OF OBSTETRICS. Barton Cooke Hirst, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics in the University of Penn.; Gynecologist to the Howard, the Orthopaedic and the Phil. Hospitals, etc. 7th Edition. W. B. Saunders Co., Phil, and London, 1912.
The effect of chronic diseases of the mother upon the fetus. Women affected with tuberculosis, cancer, or chronic malarial poisons may give birth to a succession of dead children. P. 353.
Fetal mortality exceeds that of any other period of life. For every four or five labors there is one abortion, and if to this number is added still-births the proportion of fetal deaths to living births is larger. P. 332.
THE DISEASES OF SOCIETY AND DEGENERACY. G. F. Lydston, M.D.
That a multiplicity of children in poverty-stricken families often impels to abortion, is evident. The necessary evils of our prohibitive laws and ethics bearing upon illegitimacy, are obvious; viz:
First, and worst, is infanticide, committed usually before, but only too often after birth. In the latter category I would place abandoned children who die of exposure or starvation, and the bulk of mortalities in foundling asylums and for baby farms. The social ostracism placed upon the mother is a prime factor in this child’s murder. Condemnation and shame are hers if she allows nature to take its course, and the penalty of infanticide stares her in the face if she interferes with the conception. A rarely anomalous state of affairs this.
Second—The brand of infamy placed upon the unborn child, from which only its murder can save it.
Third—The prostitution or suicide of the woman who is found out.
Branded with ignominy from the moment of conception, a burden to society, and a still greater burden to its parent, or parents from the moment of its birth, with no systematic endeavor on the part of society to prevent its growing up a criminal, a drunkard, a pauper, a prostitute, or a physical wreck, what wonder that many a poor woman’s fingers become too tightly entwined around her offspring’s neck. If her motive for the act were always as altruistic as its consequences, so far as the child’s welfare is concerned, there are some clear-minded thinkers in the world who could not be brought to judge her harshly. P. 371.
The rights of the unborn will one day be considered. Until they are so considered, and practical efforts made to secure them, we cannot hope for much improvement in the prevention of degeneracy. P. 559.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF DISEASES OF CHILDREN, November 1914. Vol. 8, pp. 327–335. Question of Hereditary syphilis as a social problem.
Of all deaths of infants in St. Louis in 1913, 1,070 were illegitimate.
Of all deaths in infants due to syphilis 1,550 were illegitimate.
AUGUST FOREL. The Sexual Question. A Scientific, Psychological, Hygienic and Sociological Study. Translated by C. F. Marshall, M.D., F.R.C.S., Late Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital for Diseases of the Skin. London.
The stigma of shame which has branded all illegitimate maternity unfortunately justifies the many cases of abortion, and even infanticide. Things ought to change in this respect, and in the future no pregnancy ought to be a source of shame for any healthy woman whatever, nor furnish the least motive for dissimulation. P. 411.
THE SMALL FAMILY SYSTEM. C. V. Drysdale, D.Sc.
Illegitimacy.—As far as statistics are concerned, the most valuable evidence is that relating to illegitimacy. The Registrar General’s Reports contain a useful amount of information upon this point, and give us the number of illegitimate births per thousand unmarried women within the fertile period, between the ages of 15 and 45. This illegitimacy rate for England and Wales is represented in Fig. [13], and it is noticeable that the fall since the year 1876 has been extremely rapid, much more so in fact than that of the fall in the general birth-rate or in the fertility rate of the married women. While the general birth-rate has fallen from 36.3 to 25.6 (or by 26.5 per cent.), the illegitimate birth-rate has fallen from 14.6 to 7.9 per thousand unmarried women (or by nearly 50 per cent.). This is most striking and satisfactory. An extreme instance is given in the county of Radnorshire, which in 1870–2 had a fertility rate of 308.6 births per 1,000 married women, which sank to 188.7 in 1909, or by 39 per cent. In the same interval the illegitimate birth-rate fell from 41.8 per 1,000 unmarried women to 7.2, or by no less than 83 per cent. In Holland a drop of the legitimate fertility from 347 to 315 per 1,000 coincided with a fall of the illegitimate fertility from 9.7 to 6.8 per 1,000, i.e., at a much greater rate. It is true that France, with its low and decreasing fertility rate (from 196 to 158 per 1,000 between 1881 and 1901), has had a comparatively high and increasing illegitimacy rate (from 17.6 to 19.1 per 1,000); and that Ireland, with a somewhat high and slightly increasing fertility (from 283 to 289 per 1,000), has the lowest and a falling illegitimacy rate (from 4.4 to 3.8 per 1,000). But this has been heavily outweighed by Austria with an equally high and steady fertility (from 281 to 284 per 1,000) with the highest illegitimacy rate known (43.4 to 40.1 per 1,000), while Germany comes second with an illegitimacy rate of 27.4 per 1,000 in 1901. Though it cannot be said, therefore, that the lowest birth-rate produces the lowest illegitimacy rate, it most certainly cannot be said that family limitation has had any evil effect in increasing legitimacy. The bulk of the evidence is quite decidedly the other way. In the case of the most notable exception—that of France—we have the authority of Dr. Bertillon for saying that the greatest decency and lowest illegitimacy are found where the birth-rate is lowest. We may also quote from our own Registrar General, who said in his Annual Report for 1909:—
“Except in the cases of the German Empire, Sweden, France, Belgium, and the Australian Commonwealth, the falls shown in illegitimate fertility in Table LXXXIV are greater than the corresponding falls in legitimate fertility.”
So far as the evidence of illegitimacy is concerned, therefore, it may be taken as definitely established that the adoption of family restriction has not led to greater laxity among the unmarried. But it would, of course, be quite unjustifiable to claim that this evidence is final. It may not mean that there is less lax conduct but only that there are fewer results of lax conduct. It is perfectly open for the orthodox moralist to claim that the greater knowledge of preventive methods has permitted an increase of laxity with a reduction of the ordinary effects. This must remain a matter of conjecture. When we find, however, that not only has illegitimacy decreased, but also deaths from abortion and from the diseases ordinarily associated with irregularity, there seems no justification whatever for the contention that chastity has been relaxed. It must not be forgotten in this connection that the encouragement to early marriage afforded by the possibility of avoiding the economic burden of a too early or too large family affords the most likely of all methods for removing the temptations to unchastity and for conquering the hitherto untractable “social evil.” Although the average age of marriage in this country has been rising somewhat lately (probably on account of the increasing cost of living), it is interesting to note that it is lower and fairly steadily decreasing in France. For first marriages the average age at marriage of French men has fallen from 28.6 in 1856 to 27.88 in 1896–1900, and of French women from 24.25 to 23.5 in the same period. This cannot be regarded as otherwise than a very good sign.
(Note: It is noteworthy in this connection that the French marriage laws are so strict that many thousands of couples live out of wedlock in preference to complying with them.)