He transmits irritable tempers, polluted blood, enfeebled intellects, and weak morals to his children. Those who have indulged the appetite for these stimulants have transmitted their depraved appetites and passions to their children and greater moral power is required to resist intemperance in all its forms. As a rule, every intemperate man who rears children transmits his inclinations and evil tendencies to his offspring. Parents who freely use wine and liquor leave to their children the legacy of a feeble constitution, mental and moral debility, unnatural appetites, irritable temper, and an inclination to vice. The child of the drunkard or the tobacco inebriate usually has the depraved appetites and passions of the father intensified, and at the same time inherits less of his self-control and strength of mind.
Parents leave maladies as a legacy to their children.
Many women never should have become mothers. Their blood was filled with scrofula, transmitted to them from their parents, and increased by their gross manner of living. These fashionably dressed women cannot transmit good constitutions to their children. . . . Wasp waists may have been transmitted to them from their mothers, as the result of their sinful practise of tight lacing, and in consequence of imperfect breathing. The impurities retained in the system in consequence of improper breathing are transmitted to their offspring.