The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-31
AM IMPoPTANT REPORT.

l up to recent pSTiou iS AoS pS~AA the universal contention that drunken ness is hereditary. The doctrine has been held and promulgated, not only by the advocates of total abstinence, hut even those who are accustomed to the use of intoxicating drinks have admitted the theory without argument. Among the former class, however, those
 who preach and favor total abstinence,
 inebriety has been considered as abso-
 lute and undeniably hereditary as is
 any other characteristic. either mental
 or physical, and the doctrine or belief
 has been so well settled that few have
 considered it necessary to advance any
 argument in its support.
 Was it an entirely mistaken belief,
 after all? That is certainly the con-
 clusion recently arrived at by a com
 mittee of fourteen expert scientists in London who have been experiment. ing and collecting data on the subject for a year and a half. According to their report they have arrived at the
 positive conclusion that "the drunken
 ness of the father cannot produce the
 same vice in the son-that inebriety is non- hereditary.
 This conclusion will come as great surprise, and of course will not be at once accepted. if at all. Like all oth- CT conclusions which work a complete
 revolution in the accepted beliefs of the world, it will require irrefragable evidence of it's truth before it will be fully established, and that evidence
 will have to come through experiment and observation, probably extending through long series of years. Intel ligent people do not give up long established belief without having am-
 ple time to test the matter.
 It must be admitted, however. or
 understood, that even if this conclu-
 sion of the London doctors is true, and even if it's truth shall be fully es-
 tablished and accepted. it is no argu-
 ment against temperance. or any ar-
 gument in favor of intemperance.
 Drunkenness will be just as discredit- able, just as hurtful to the individual and to society as 1t has ever been. and there will not be wanting plenty of strong and effective arguments in favor of temperance as long as people get drunk. That intemperance cannot be bequeathed from sire to son may be proven, and the advocates of temper ance may be deprived of the argument that the inebriate father is transmit ting his failing or his crime to unborn generations, but that does not deprive the advocates of temperate life of coplcus arguments in favor of the beauty and blessings of temperance, and of the manifold evils of intemper- ance. There will always be good and sound ground for temperance people to stand on and to argue from.
 But, it will be asked, if this London deliverance is true, why is it that drunken parents so often have drunk en children? If we understand the meagre details of the report, there are two reasons for this well-known fact. They hold, as we understand them, that there may be a peculiar taint in the blood which predisposes man tc in temperance, and that this taint of the father goes down to the children who will also be liable to the same fault. but they argue that "no amount of right living can decrease that taint and | no amount of debauchery can increase | 1t in the child" In other words, as | the doctors now hold that a person | who is predisposed to consumption may | transmit the weakness or condition to | his children but cannot transmit the | disease itself. so this deliverance is to | the effect that man cannot transmit | but that his children may | inherit from him the peculiar charac- teristic which caused him to get | drunk, and that they will also be liable | to fall just as he did. Whether this | Is a sound argument we leave for Cth- CTS to decide.
 But there is another and cogent req son why children with drunken par ents should themselves become inebri- | ates, and that is the force of example. All know that children are exceedingly initiative, and that they are largely influenced by example. and especially by the example of their parents. When the mind of the boy is in a formative