Dr. Pidduck in the London Lancet says, “In no instance is a sin of the fathers more strikingly visited on the children than in the sin of tobacco-smoking. The enervation, the hypochondriasis, the hysteria, the insanity, the suffering lives and early deaths of the children of inveterate tobacco-smokers bear ample testimony to the feebleness and unsoundness of the constitution transmitted by the victims of this pernicious habit.”
Effects of tobacco.—The most eminent physicians of France tell us that the rapid decline in the birth-rate of that nation is due, in part, to the inveterate tobacco users, as shown by such a large number of this class being at the head of childless homes.
Children of tobacco users.—Just as drunkenness may not always manifest itself in a desire for alcohol, but may manifest itself in the form of insanity, idiocy, epilepsy, lasciviousness or criminal tendencies; so, in the children of the inveterate tobacco users the evil effects are often shown in one or more morbid conditions. One has but to study the children of a few excessive users of the weed to be convinced that they do not possess the physical endurance and strength of the fathers. The children of this class of fathers are usually puny, weak and nervous. It is not an easy thing to convince a robust, healthy man that his habit is laying the foundation for constitutional degeneracy in his children and grandchildren.
Where both use tobacco.—Where the husband and wife both use tobacco the injurious effects on the immediate children are very noticeable. This is because the mother has more hereditary influence over the children than does the father.
Tobacco and degeneracy.—You cannot always judge of the hereditary effects of bad habits in one generation. In the first generation the effects may not be noticeable. If the bad habits are continued for a few generations the defective descendants multiply. Suppose that a husband and wife are both heavy users of tobacco; that all their children follow their examples and marry companions addicted to the use of tobacco; that their grandchildren all follow the example of their ancestors and marry companions who are inveterate users; and suppose this continued until the fourth generation, who can estimate the resulting degeneracy? It is probable that in many cases degeneracy would be complete and there would be no fifth generation.
Fathers transmit morbid tendencies more to their sons than to their daughters.—Objectors to acquired characteristics being transmitted often ask why girls as well as boys do not inherit appetites for tobacco and whisky. Many girls are just as conscious of an abnormal appetite for stimulants as their brothers are. More women are addicted to the use of wine and the cigarette than is generally supposed. But for the companionship and protection of mother and a social law that would discard them from society, more would form these habits than do.
It is a recognized fact that where one sex acquires a characteristic that becomes fixed by continued custom, that this characteristic will be transmitted mostly along the line of that sex. That relic of savagery, the “double standard of morals,” temperance for woman and intemperance for man, purity for woman and impurity for man, do right for woman and do as you please for man, has, after centuries of practice, become to a considerable extent constitutional in the two sexes. Hence, girls inherit less of lasciviousness, less of tendency toward the use of tobacco and strong drink. This double standard of morals originated among the savage races who owned their wives and daughters. They sold, swapped, exchanged their daughters on the marriage markets as they would dispose of other property. A daughter’s value was largely based on her virtue. If she had forfeited this priceless gem of womanhood she was brutally stoned to death or forced into the most cruel servitude.
A heroic struggle.—There are thousands of brave, true men who advocate and live the white life. Thousands more are struggling heroically to win the laurels of a white life. Others are getting the vision and are falling into line. Gentle reader, if you are not one of us, we extend to you a warm welcome; if you are, we are glad of your fellowship.
CHAPTER XLIX
ABNORMAL MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS, OR BIRTHMARKS
Extent of birthmarks.—In other chapters I have discussed normal, prenatal influences. In this chapter, I will discuss abnormal mental influences of the mother, resulting in what are commonly called birthmarks. The best statistics available on the subject indicate that but one child in every 2,000 is marked. Personally, I am inclined to believe that birthmarks are about twice this frequent. The laity think that the per cent. is even larger, as each individual has seen or heard of several cases.