The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-02-20
AWFUL HERITAGES.


DIR. M. Legrain, of Paris, who is the
physician-in-chief to Partisan asylum
for the insane, and the author of several
previous works on different phases of
the drink evil, has lately published a
work entitled: "Degenerescence Sociale
ct Alcoholisme." This work is divided
into twoparts. In the first he treats of The
posterity of drinkers; and IN tie second.
he speaks of the prevention and dimuni-
ton of alcoholism. The whole of the
first part of the work is written to prove
that the descendants of chronic drink
ers are very seriously menaced with the
same vice.
This opinion seems to have been held
by good observers even in ancient
Greece, and the biblical expression, OF
the sins of the parents descending to
the third and fourth generation, is in
unison with the facts observed by DR..
Legrain. He finds from cases seen in
his wards, and from the examination
of these successive generations, that al
coholism entails the most terrible evils
on children. AS to the first generation
AlOl1 CuC vi uhhCn palCuu, TIC SlNtS UllS
cases of 215 parents with SIS Of their
children, who are all affected in their
nervous system or general health by
the vices of the parents. These I'M
fortunates were found to be either de-
generated, or affected with CONVERSIONS,
or addicted to drunkenness; or, lastly,
prone to die of phthisis or scrofula.
In the second generation, 50 observa-
tons represent a total of 294 persons.
IN "a of these families, mental weak
ness and idiocy were noted, with almost
entire loss of mental sense, and often
danger to their neighbors. Deafness.
strabismus, copgenital hernia, and ny
drocephalus were noted, and o ten
dency to marriage with equally de-
graded partners. Numbers of abortions
and early deaths among the posterity
of drunkards were noted by our author.
The drunkard kills his children" says
DR.. Legrain. In $40 births, there were
174 abortions. dead births. or infantilc
deaths, occurring among the posterity
of drunkards. The portrait of the de-
scendant of the drunkard is rapidly
sketched as follows: He is degenerate,
feeble, and epileptic or insane.
The conclusion is that alcoho! should
be considered rs a cause of degeDera-
ton for the individual and the race; as
a cause of depoDulatior; as danger to
society, and as a source of social ex-
pense, if the great cost of the in
sane be considered. He sums up his
views in three aphorisms:
/. When both parents drink, there
exists an irresistible tendency to drink
in the children.
2. Absinthe drinking in the parents
is an almost certain cause of epilepsy
in the children.
3. The union of epilepsy and absinthe
drinking in the parents produces with
out faiD epilepsy in the children.
Finally, as far as DR.. Legrain's OBJ
servations, II in number, go, he finds
that in the third generation OF drunk
ards. the race is almost exhausted. All
the II cases he cites were degenerate
types, weak in mind imbeciles, or idiots.
Some were criminals and vagabonds,
some epileptic. and others scrofulous
or greatly affected in health. and use
less.
A family history is given where the
grandfather was drunkard and liber-
tine, and the grandmother had ten
Gency to melancholy. They became the
parents of three children. one of whom
was weakly, another, tuberculosis, and
the third also of delicate health. The
third, woman, married a drunken and
dissipated man. and this union resulted
in nine unfortunate children. seven of
them having suffered from commissions.
meningitis, and epilepsy; the eighth
was born prematurely, and the ninth
weak and vicious.
In another case drunNard was the
father of daughter who married an
inveterate drunLard. From this union
sprung ~ children of whom five died
in infancy of commissions, and all the
rest either succumbed, or became drunk
ards and vagaboods, or were affected
with some disease of the nerves.
About one-ffth of the 7G1 cases of
the posterlty OF orunkardS, according
TO the notes of Dr.. Legrain, were af-
fected with some form of insanity.
Such persons are not only useless, but
dangerous. and surely society must be
protected against them. Without men
tioning the dangers to individuals, such
children become the inmates of idiot
asylums or prisons. AS to epilepsy. it
has long been looked on as the effect
of alcohol; and is especially dangerous
in that there are few diseases so certain
~ hereditary. Hence, according to our
author, clinical observations tell us that
one or two generations of alcoholians
are enough TO destroy the individual and
the race, by means of diseases of the
nerves, commissions, epilepsy. and in
sanity. The accidents of hereditary
alcoholism produce themselves early