“It may be pointed out that the children of the drunkard are on the average less capable of citizenship on account of
“(a) The inheritance of nervous defect inherent in the parent.
“(b) Intra-uterine alcoholic poisoning in cases where the mother is an inebriate.
“(c) Neglect, ill-feeding, accidents, blows, etc., which are responsible on the one hand for much infant mortality, and combined with the possible causes before mentioned, for the ultimate production of adults defective both in body and mind.
“It would appear, then, that the drunkard, if not effectively restrained, conduces to the production of a defective race, involving a grave financial burden upon the sober portion of the community, to say nothing of higher considerations. It therefore seems to the Eugenics Education Society of extreme importance that some substantial effort should be made for the reform of existing drunkards, or the permanent control of the irreformable.
“Scientific warrant for the foregoing propositions is now to be found in no small abundance. Reference may be made, for instance, to the chapter on ‘Alcoholism and Human Degeneration,’ in Dr. W. C. Sullivan's recent work Alcoholism (Nisbet, 1906). Dr. Sullivan quotes the results of more than a dozen observers in this and other countries, and special attention may be drawn to his own well-known study of the history of 600 children born of 120 drunken mothers. The works of Professor Forel of Zurich are widely known in this connection, notably Die Sexuel Frage, and The Hygiene of Nerves and Mind (Translation, Murray, 1907). Parental alcoholism as a true cause of epilepsy in the offspring is now generally recognised. For numerous and detailed proofs from many sources reference may be made to page 210 of the last work named.
“It is not necessary, however, to go over the ground which has doubtless been covered by the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.
“The existing laws comply to only a very small and almost negligible extent with the eugenic requirement. They only deal with (a) the very minute proportion of inebriates who can be induced to voluntarily sign away their liberty, and (b) those who are also criminal or all but hopeless and who have done harm already, either as individuals or in becoming parents. The third group of inebriates (c) not included in (a) or (b) constitutes the overwhelming majority of the whole. They are absolutely untouched by the present law, and further powers are urgently required to deal with them.
“Such legislation would be by no means without precedent, and may avail itself of the experience of several of our own colonies and various foreign countries. Such methods as compulsory control on petition, guardianship and so forth are in employment, for instance, in the Australian Commonwealth and New Zealand, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, various cantons in Switzerland, Nova Scotia, etc.