The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-13

4 !. Il I
IHTEMPERANCE HEREDrTARY-Of the manv
astounding truths concerning the effects of al
cohol upon the human system, which have been
brought to light by medical skill and observa
ton, there is not one, perhaps which has been
received with so little credulity as the doctrine
that drunkenness is hereditary that it is i'm
parted from parents to children. By most per
sons, the idea is regarded ms the Offspring of
over-enthusiastc minds, rather than we'll at
tested truth, corroborated by the evidence of
the most celebrated physicians, both of the old
and new world. Nor is the doctrine norel one,
but comes to us sanctioned by the experience of
antiquity. Thus Plutarch saws" One drunkard
begets another"-and Aristotle remarks that
drunken women bring forth children like unto
themselves" And Or. Browne, a distinguished
physician Of q later day, makes the following
statement: "The drunkard not only iniures and
enfeebes his own system, but entails mental dis
ease upon his family. His daughters are ner-
vous and hysterical his sons are weak. wav-
ward eccentric, and sink insane under the pres.
sure OF excitement, of some unforeseen exigency.
or of the ordinary calls of duty. This heritage
may be the result of ruined and diseased con
stltution, but is much more likely to proceed
from that lonq-continued nervous excitement in
which pleasure was sought in the alternate exal-
tation Of sentiment and oblivion, which ex-
hausted and wore out the mental powers, and
ultimately produced imbecility and paralysis,
both attributable to sense of the substance Of
the brain. fl
How far the monomania of inebrety is itself
a disease, and may be more the development, the
than the commencement of
hereditary tendency to arrangement, this is not
the place to point out but there is every reason
to believe that it not only acts upon, and renders
more deleterious, whatever latent may exist, but
vitiates or impairs the sources of health for sew
cral generations. That the effects of drunken
ness are highly inmcal to n permanent, healthy
state of the brain, is often proved ut great dis
lance of time from the course of intemperance,
and long after the adoption Of regular habits.
Sometime since was called upon to treat re.
fine boy about sixteen years old,
among whose relations no case of arrangement
could be pointed out and for whose sudden
malady no cause could be assigned, except
single glass of spirits. His father, however,
had been confirmed drunkard, was subject to
hts of delirium and depression, following inc
briefly, and died of delirum tremens.
The boy recovered His case presented many
points of interest His head increased rapidly,
and the two hemispheres were of unequal size.
Inc disease was intermittent, the patient passing
week in incoherent madness, and the succeed
ing week in perfect tranquility and conscious
ness These states were separated or connected
by short profound sleep or lethargy, differing
altogether from the patients ordinary sleep, and
recognized by him as the eliminating point Of
MS disorder. At present have two patients
who appear to inherit q tendency to unhealthy
lction of the brain from mothers addicted to
lrinking and another, an idiot whose father
vas drunkard." DR.. Howe, in his report to
he Legislature Of Massachusetts, on idiocy,
ays, the parents Of the 800 idiots in the hos
,ltnl, are "known to be habituaI drunkards.
Such parents, il is affirmed, give weak and lax