The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-04-25
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
WHAT WILL THE END BET
appalling Figures Showing the Increase
of the '.Defective CIassea"

of the defective Glasses"
OAe OF the things which give the
most concern to all interested in the
welfare and progress of the nation is
the ugly fact that the total number of
the defective classes"-the insane. the
idiotic, the epileptic, the deaf and
dumb, the habitual criminals, and 9TH
ers of Unbalanced mentality, increases
at greater ratio than the total popu-
lation. There are more of these in pro-
portion to the population shown by the
census every ten years. 1t reveals the
unwelcome fact that the ratio is stead
lily increasing with every decade.
There is reason for this-a reason
admitted by all neurologists and med
ical authorities; and that reason is in
temperance.
The authorities agree that three
fourths OF the crime in this country is
the direct or indirect result of indul-
gence in Intoxicating liquors, and that
at least three-fourths of the total cost
of the ponderous police and criminal
court machinery, OF the prisons and
warehouses and penitentiaries, are di-
,rectly chargeable to the account of the
liquor traffic.
Nor does there seem to be any reason
able doubt that the same proportion of
the total number of cases of insanity
in the country are due to the same
cause. The percentages given by the
various investigators, in different asy-
~aums, vary from so per controversial
to 80 per cent! We therefore take rs
per hree-fourths-as a fair
average Of the percentages given by
these various authorities. 1t is not
meant that in all these cases the in
sanity results directly from the effects
OF excessive drink on the part of the
patient himself. though the cases
where this is true are many, and every
superintendent of an insane asylum
can point out large number of cases
of insanity from drink among his
patients. These percentages include
persons driven insane through the in
temperance of others-such as those
whose minds have been unbalanced by
grief, or loss of fortune or social posi-
tion-as in the case of the wives of
drunkards: and the victims of thou
sand other proximate causes, which in
turn have their origin in the use of in
toxicants.
The influence of heredity steadily
works to increase the number of in
sane and idiotic. 1t ought to be plain
to every thinking person that man
whose physical system is soaked and
permeated with the poison of alcohol,
&c
blood, and brain, and nerves, can not
transmit to his children sound strong
constitutions Idiocy and insanity
Iequently appear in such children; or
+ they be escaped, the malign inf1u-
nee upon the parent is seen in epilep-
rsy, or melancholia, or a long train of
obscure and intractable nervous dis
eases, which are liable to be the in
Jherited result; or the child may be a
cripple, or may be born deaf and
dumb. Moreover, where the children of a
drunkard are apparently healthy, that
mysterious law of heredity, by which a
hereditary curse skips over one gener-
;ation to reappear in the second, often
comes into play; and though the chill
dren OF sot may escape, their own
children pay the awful penalty of
the grandfather's slavery to the habit
of drink.
The net result of all these influences
is seen in this too rapid increase in the
numbers of criminals, insane, idiotic,
epileptic, deaf and dumb, and other de-
fective and dependent classes, who, be-
ing incapable of maintaining them
selves, become charge upon the
state; and year by year, as their
numbers steadily increase, the bur-
den of their maintenance becomes
heavier and heavier upon the tax-pay-
rs. Our prisons are enlarged to find
more room for the increased number of
criminals; our asylums and hospitals
Are added to, that room may be made
for the unfortunates who need their
shelter; our poorhouses are crowded
with the homeless and helpless; and
drink is the fons ct origo mali-the
great cause of the states being com
peeled to imprison or shelter fully
'three-fourths of the sum total of all
Ithese people.
We shall leave the discussion of the
purely financial side of this problem
the enormous burden it imposes upon
the Taxpayers, and consequently upon
every citizen-for some future occa
sion. But we wish to call the atten-
ton of every one to the ethical side OF
the problem. The steady increase of
these defective classes means vast
towering of the mental powers of the
masses. Is it not certain that for
every one so mentally or physically
deficient as to need maintenance at
the public expense, there must be sew
eral--a dozen or more, perhaps-who
are weakened in intellect and body,
but not to so great degree?-Toledo
Blade.