The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-12-19

remarkable that all the diseases from
drinking spurious or fermented liquors are
liable to become hereditary even to the
third generation. gradually increasing, III
the cause be continued, until the family be-
comes extinct"
DIR. Willard Parker, of New York, SAYS:
THE inheritance Is a sad one; a tendency
TO the disease of the parent is induced as
that of consumption, cancer or govt. and
with the tendency he must wage perpetual
war, or he becomes drunkard."
DIR. Parrish remarks that this appetite
is often an inheritance with which sits
possessor would gladly part if he could. 1t
constitutes an element in his temperament.
1t is part of his constitution. He did
not create it-he does not cherish it-nayl
he abhors it; but it clings to him like
the poison of other forms of disease"
DIR. Dugas, Professor OF Surgery in the
medical college of Georgia, observes:
what is true with regard to the influence
of intemperance upon the offspring of the
first drunken parent becomes most pain
fully so if the son himself follow the ex-
ample of his father, and becomes also a
drunken parent. The issue of this second
generation of drunkards will, in all prob
ability, be few in number and their
stamina be so much impaired that it will
be with the utmost difficulty that any of
them can can reach maturity. Let US fol-
low this third generation and see If it
also take to the bottle, it will be the last
of the family. For do not hesitate to
proclaim it as Flaw of almost universal
application that three successive genera
tons Of drunkards will leave no issuel The
third generation may have children, but
not one of these will be reared"
Without instancing the names of others,
whose records are of the highest order, and
who have devoted themselves to long in
vestiRation and research, the following
summary of an experienced physician is Of
the deepest interest:
The effects of alcohol enter directly
into the causation of many affections, such
as diseases of the liver, with or without
dropsy; epilepsy, muscular tremor, in
fammation of the stomach, various dys-
pepuc disorders, and the arrangement Of
the kidney embraced under the name OF
1 Bright's disease-and indirectly the ex-
cessive use of alcohol favors the causes:
and it contributes to their fatality by i'm
pairing the ability to tolerate and oyer
come them.
There is a species Of dipsomania which
is constitutional and congenital The &C.
sire for stimulants may be constant or
paroxysmal-au irresistible and Unsuitable
craving is either developed by ever SC
small an indulgence or is ever present.
Persons with this predispositisu lose their
power of self control as soon as they feel
the influence of alcohol The morbid ap-
petite they suffer from, the propensity
they have inherited, or allowed by indul
gence to become a MANIA IL not only diff
cult of cure in the immediate victims them
selves, but the seeds of morbid appetite
are transmissible to their children
The deleterious effect on the mental is
not less marked than on the physical
| powers-the perceptions are perverted or
apathetIc, the intellectual and moral
faculties deteriorate, until the confirmed
drinker, miserable in body and debauched
10 mind. has but one motive in life. viz. to
indulge and crafty the morbid craving for
alcohol. We will take, for instance, a
person in the state known among drunk
ards as the horrors" 1t is useless to at
tempt TO reason person In this plight in
to temperance; he may appreciate the
force of all the arguments which are pre-
sented-he may be willing to grasp at any
straw of help that is offered-but his
whole system is crying out for alcohol;
and is it to be wondered at that starving
nervous tissue attempts to satisfy an in.
tolerable sense of craving, of physical
hunger and thirst, by the use of stimu.
Iants that temporarily supply the place Of
food and bring relief? The will power il
such a case is in allegiance, and tht
patient lacks moral strength to govern a
J habit (be it acquired or inherited) which
represents a morbid condition as much al
the decisions Of insanity"
Is THE APPETITE Durable?
From generation to generation govern
(Concl uded on next page.)