New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-02-08
MllE RES SlIsIlQ
NEW ULM, MINI.
cHAs. L Roos, Managing Editor
Wednesday,, February s, 1883.
written for the Review)
Effects of Stimulants and Narcotics
on the Human System.
S. L RoOs, Managing Editor
Wednesday, February s, 1883.
VIII.

VIII.
%. HEREDITARY EFFECTs.-Great
stress is laid by some textbooks on the
transmission of parental intemper-
ance'' to offspring; and according to
that exceedingly moral principle that
the end justifies the means, no distinc-
ton is made between the use and the
abuse of alcoholics. DR.. E. F. Brown,
in the Eclectic Guide to Health, says
IN accordance with the requirements of
the w. G. T. u: added to the dan
gers and injuries to the person who u.s.
es the alcohol, there is also danger of
transmitting nervous weakness and
narcotic appetite from parents to child.
rem. The children of parents who use
alcohol and other narcotics generally
suffer some kind of nervous weakness
therefrem." This last statement has
no foundation in fact, unless the term
nervous weakness be made to include
all those slight and temporary depart
ures from the normal state of the typi.
cal nervous system to which the entire
human race is subject. But in this case
the word s'therefrom'' must be can.
celed, and the statement is equally true
of the children of those who never use
alcohol Or other narcotics.
It seems trifie strange that people
who, in a majority of cases, have a
deeply rooted horror of everything that
savors of Darwinism, should demand
that its leading principle be taught in
our public schools. But then, the end
justifles the means, according to the
moral code of some people.
The doctrine of transmission from
parent to child is now received as one
of those laws which have been empiri-
cally established beyond reasonable
doubt. But it is law of possibilities,
and not of fixed results. The drunkard
cannot plead as an excuse that the al
coholic appetite has come down to him
from Noah (Gen. TX, Ply. There is no
transmission in that sense. But there is
transmission of possibilities, and
strengthening of some and weakening
OF other possibilities to such an extent
that the child born to-day is heir to the
accumulated possibilities of ages.
This Aristotelian doctrine, confirmed
by modern science, has nothing alarm
ing IN it. 1t is but a statement of the
law of human progress. The history of
our civilization clearly shows that the
actualization of possibilities for im-
provement vastly predominates over
that of possibilities for deterioration.
Schopenhauer' grandfather was in
sane; his father committed suicide; his
mother was an authoress; he himself
was q noted philosopher, whose
works, however. were not appreciated
until after his death, owing, perhaps,
to his somewhat eccentric character.
The possibility of becoming insane is
greater in the descendants of the insane
than in others but the statement that
the nervous systems of such persons
contain the germs of brain disease, is
an ill-chosen metaphor. They can only
be said to have inherited predisposi-
ton to that kind of disease. The men
tai arrangement of such persons is an
exception, and not rule.
Excessive use of alcoholics in course
OF time weakens the nervous system and
lngrafts upon it an alcoholic appetite.
1t is not improbable that the possibility
of becoming drunkard may be greater
in the drunkard's offspring than in
others yet despite the so.called inves-
LEGATIONS relative to this point, the re-
liable information that is given US is
too meager to ground any conclusions
upon it. The solution of the problem
can onl y be delayed by attempts to
prove that those who use alcoholics in
moderation transmit an alcoholic appe-
tite to their children. We might as
well attempt to prove that the child of
the thinking man has strong leaning
toward insanity. Those who furnish
the e7?fant terrible of politics with the
material for its little jokes, take it for
granted that there has been trans
mission of alcoholic appetite in the case
Of every drunkard whose father or
grandfather used alcoholics in any de-
gree. This is sheer nonsense. Accord
ing to that. upwards of ninety per cent.
of our population ought to have that
craving for alcohol which we are told
is SO exceedingly difficult to subdue.
Reasoning from analogy, however,
it does not seem improbable, as stated
above, that the drunkard's child may
have predisposition to alcoholic ex-
cesses. But there is a powerful offset
to this in the misery under which that
child was brought up. I have more
confidence in the strength of resolutions
spontaneously formed under such cir
cumstances than in all the pledge-sign.
ing, ittle-band-of-hope and scientific
fact humbugs thrown together. The
teacher who depicts the actual evils of
drunkenness with special reference to
their bearing On family life, and
strengthens the confidence of her pupils
in their own power of will, is touching
familiar chords in the heart of the
drunkard's child, and by directing at.
tention to facts confirmed by the child's
daily observation, is doing infinitely
more good than zone who teaches the
campaign arguments of political party