The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-09-25
A DIRE INHERITANCE.
NE Hidden Fountain Head Of the C1rs
Of Drunk enneax

more surely than did treason work il
Gellius said three hum
dred years ago: 1.-THE children of
are not likely to have sound
brains" Erasmus Darwin gave strong
testimony to the fact that diseases
arising from the use of liquor are liza
BILE to become hereditary even to the
third generation, gradually increas-
ing, If the cause be continued, till the
family becomes extinct
Much OF the drunkenness OF to-day
can be traced directly to the cider bar
rels of fifty years ago. The first gen.
GRAFTON drank cider; its alcohol called
for more of the same in the next gen.
GRAFTON, SO that the cider.drinkers'
children wished stronger liquor, and
their children. the drunkards of to-
day, demand whisky straight"
An appetite for drink does not by
any means exhaust the Inheritance
bequeathed children by the drinking
habits of parents. Strictly speaking.
what is transmitted by alcoholic
heredity is a diseased nervous organ
ism which may show itself in hysteria,
epilepsy, ST. Vitus' dance, idiocy or
various other forms OF nervous i'm
pairment. In this way is it that the
daughters of drunkards suffer for the
sins of their fathers Women are SO
shielded and guarded against tempta-
tions to drunkenness that the heredi-
tary faint has little chance to show
itself in that direction, but its power
is felt in the various forms of nervous
diseases which make life burden to
thousands Of women. ..ai.s,} MIA
DR.. Henry N. Hurd. for many years
superintendent Of the Eastern Michi-
gan Insane Asylum. where he made
the study of nervous diseases spec
ialty, and now, superintendent of Johns
Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. says:
"Some of the children of drunkards
inherit Immediately from their parents
diseases like epilepsy. chronic chorea,
hysteria, idiocy or imbecility. As q
rule, such children are precocious.
They develop prematurely, and show
considerable intellectual quickness.
They often possess taste for music OF
painting, or for special handicrafts
and are ingenious, winning and at
tractive. They are tasteful in dress
if females, and show almost brillian
in conversation and bearing. They
sometimes display from tender year.
perversions of moral sense. They arr
untruthful, INSCRIPTIONS as to tn
means employed to accomplish cher
ished plans; Indifferent as to the prop
erty rights of others, lacking in an ap
probation OF abstract right and jus
tice. They usually display a lack Q
mental equilibrium, and frequently
lose those traits Of mind which i
childhood proved SO attractive. The
are hayward, jealous, suspicious an
perverse, and often shock their par
ents and friends by acts OF APPARENT
wanton cruelty toward younger chi
dren or animals. AS adult life
reached, if females, they become hyi
terical and nervous, and often sin
into condition of invalidism whic
terminates, sooner or later, in actui
insanity. Males at a corresponding az
become restless, reckless, dissipated
Prot. Krofft-Ebing, in a very learne
work published in Stuttgart, 1885,
gives this genesis Of alcoholic here'
ity: I'm the first generation there
found in the children Of drunkari
moral depravity and tendency to a
coholic excess. The second gener;
ton are subject to attacks Of insanit,
the drink mania and general paralysi
the third show hypochondria, with
tendency to murder, and to the fourt
comes imbecility, idiocy and extin
ton Of family, thus verifying the d
vine law: Visiting the iniquities of Il
fathers upon the children to the thil
! and fourth generation. When g,
tinction Of the family does not occ,
} there comes an utter revolt of ii
whole nature, loathiug for drir
which presents bright side of h
redity.
, 1t is the testimony of experts tn
these fearful hereditary effects are n
alone transmitted by haM drinker
they are often entailed by modera
: drinkers who. though they may new
have been dead drunk in their live
!. kept their system continually und
the influence Of alcohol.
: Is there not enough evenSin the bal
r possibility OF Transmitting such dil
inheritance to his children to NAL
e any man pause before allowing h
Q blood to become contaminated by 6
9 cohol or nicotinep To noble natu
= there can be no stronger incentive
r pure living than the thought that /
: nocent children are to suffer the pc
atty of his indulgence in ''feshly lus
a that war against the soul" Those wi
: SOW wild oats do not garner the who
4 crop. Much of the baneful harve
e remains to curse the lives that spril
| from their own. --Union Signal.
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