Marriage should always be discouraged on account of the marked tendency of epilepsy to be transmitted to the offspring. In all grave cases, marriage, or new impregnation, should be prohibited. P. 363. (Hugo Ehrenfest, M.D.)
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.