Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1911-02-01
w c. T. u CO UNI IN.
A STUDY OF HEREDlTY
AS Applied to the Problems of Intern
perance.-Original w. c. 7. u.
Paper.

What is heredity? 1.-The accumu
lated result of the majority of char
acteristics.' More briefly, the trans
mitted sum of habits and traits. We
frequently hear it. said of children
that they get this or that from father
or from mother. Indeed no law is
more universally acknowledged. See
how carefully the up to-date farmer
studies the pedigrees of cattle. No
tice with what--pride the full bloods"
are referred to. whether of cattle.
horses or ever hens.
But how careless we are concerning
that which is of vastly greater impor-
lance. the child's heredity. Frances
Il. Willard once wrote: eff I have
ever uttered word that cleaves to
the core of the subject. it is this Com
pared with any other law, l hold in
higher dignity and more awful signih-
canoe the law of descent, of inherit
lance, OF prenatal influence, of the
determining of destiny before a hu-
man being has ever known an indie
pendent heart beat or an intelligent
volition."
Yes heredity is the law, but it may
be limited. A low heredity' may be
so broken. so overcome that those
who see can but wonder and exrlaim
as they find the old saw, "Blood will
tell, all dulled and useless.
1.-The tainted past may bring forth
flowers,
AS blossomed Aaron's rod,
No legacy of sin annuls
Her dity from God.''
There are three kinds of heredity,
prenatal or direct, reversional, resem-
blance to grandparents. or even more
remote. And collateral, or indirect,
referring to aunts, uncles, cousins
etc. 1t is said that tendencies to GER
tam diseases, also physical character
lstlcs are more frequently traced to
grandparents than to the parents.
But purpose to speak especially of
the direct heredity. We have most
! beautiful example of this in our be-
loved leader. Frances Willard. Do you
not call to mind that her mother is
known as "Saint Courageous, the
woman of unfaltering trust. Miss Will
lard was wont to say that she thank ed
GOD that she was d welcomed child in
a Christian home. How much that
means The being "welcome" is
every child's birthright, yet how many
40 you suppose. are deprived of that
right? Lady Harry Somerset says
1.-The Millennium will set in when
every child is welcome"
What do we mean when we say
every child has right to be well
born" Certainly not that each one
may come to home of luxury. We
mean that each one be desired and
welcomed to home ruled by love and
chastity; born with body created in
the image Of God nor dwarfed by
wrong clothing, impure air, unhealth-
full food, nor the use of lcoholics, to
bacco or other drugs. Born with a
brain keen and active.
Nor should we be careless of the
fact that direct heredity may even be
directed to the child's face and form.
Parents can no longer plead ignorance
of these things. Books by the best
writer's are to be had at prices so low
that it is simply robbing the child to
longer shut out the light. Then
there are those in our midst who are
making special study of these
of US the truths they've learned. Why
all this study of heredity? Surrey
not to benefit ourselves. No, it is for
the coming generations.
Teach the young people LIES won
derful possibilities. Teach them tc
strive to make themselves so pure. sc
upright, to keep their bodies so
healthy, that their children and chill.
dren's children shall indeed call them
blessed. When We think of the dan.
ger of giving to our children oul
faults, We are tempted to wish there
were no heredity but when we re-
member that virtue is likewise trans
mittable, when we recognize the al
most limitless opportunities afforded
during the prenatal period; we car
but see heredity is a friend, humbly
seek wisdom, while we acknowledge
that earth holds no more desirable, nc
more glorious title than "Mother.'
Second only is "Father.' Did al
but realize this, there We're no neec
to give the dark side of heredity bu
if We show that as we'll may it not
help tc awaken some?
The folio wing is from Tr. Purington
National Supt. r. ard II.
1.-The Earl of SALISBURY believed
that fifty of sixty per cent of the in
sane could be traced to an alcoholic
drinking ancestry.
"Said Plutarch. 'Inebriates produce
imbeciles;' Darwin, The influence
of alcoholic drinks is felt to the thirc
and fourth generation. If the mother
is victim Of the habit, the children
are apt to be born prema turelv. O,
are idiots;' Leppich, 1884. Rosch,
1899, made vestigations to obtair
statistics the latter. exact anatomi
cal observations of the changes in the
organs of sex in drunkards. Of 81
children, only Ia were normal. one.
quarter scrofuious, nervous, etc.
Huss, (Swede) wrote of the degenera
cy of the children of drunkards Moro
speaks of the periodic dementia of TIE
victims of alcohol and that If ropdors