The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-04-05
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE
ALCOHOLIC HEREDlTY.

In report given at the Sixth Inter-
national Congress Against Alcoholism,
Dr. Ladame said:
Of all the questions raised by alco-
holism none is more important or
more serious for our generation than
that of heredity.
Alcohol is today the principal cause
of deterioration in the white race.
The manifestations of alcoholic he
redity are very variable. They may
be due to the direct toxic action of
the poison upon the germ, or the gen
eral or special morbid influence exer-
cised by the alcoholized parents upon
their descendants. From this point of
view, conception during drunkenness,
and still more, alcoholism in the
mother during the prenatal and nour-
lshlng period, have the most baneful
consequences.
Numerous experiments: upon animals
and conclusive observations upon men
nave demonstrated that the alcoholic
lntoX1catlon Of the father or mother
disturbs prenatal development, stamps
it with marks Of degeneracy, and
causes malformations of the organs,
often monstrosities, followed by abor-
ton or still-birth. Alcohol thus be-
comes a direct cause of depopulation.
The injurious influence of alcohol
upon the descendants can make itself
felt upon generations when the latter
have suffered from intoxication only
through one or the other of the origi-
nal (drinking) parents. This conclu-
sion follows from experiments made
upon animals and numerous observa-
tons of human families.
large number of the descendants
of alcoholics have a weak constitution
and do not attain complete develop
ment, as is proved by the statistics of
military recruits in countries and dis
tricts where the consumption of a1co-
holic liquors is high. ''
Alcohol in heredity is often mani
tested by commissions in early infancy
and by the appearance of epilepsy at
the period of adolescence Many al-
thors consider that two-thirds of cpl
leptics are the offspring of alcoholic
parents
1t is estimated that more than half
of the feeble-minded and idiotic whose
brains have suffered an arrest of de-
velopment or degenerative LESSONS are
the results of heredity alcoholism
Drunkards beget drunkards. One of
the most usual of the influences of he
reditary alcoholism is the creation of
an instructive tendency in the children
of drinkers to abandon themselves in
their youth to excuses in drink 1t
is especially through heredity that
women become the prey of alcoholism
which has grown SO increasingly. fire.
quent among them that the scourge
threatens even the existence of our
modern society.
Alcohol is a prepOnderating cause
of mental disorders, and the frequency
of insanity keeps step with the in
crease of alcoholism. Hereditary
mental degeneracy is one of the most
direct causes of alcoholism in the pro-
genitors. Inebriety is. essentially
brain deterioration, and one sees it in
the descendants of alcoholics in all
disorders, organic and functional,
from moral insanity, the deliriums of
jealousy and persecution, to general
paralysis. That which distinguishes
insanity due to hereditary alcoholism
| is the precocity and apparent spon-
| taneity of it's appearance.
Precocious moral perversiOns are
to1c al,
holism, such as is shown by juvenile
criminality which has grown to such
frightful proportions in the countries
| where alcoholism prevails. The truly
criminal-born are recruited among the
children of alcoholic parents.
| The consequences of alcoholic he
redity are frequently observed among
abandoned children. A number of
years ago, the society for the care of
abandoned children of Geneva showed
in it's report that nine-tenths of tho
| cases of abandonment were due to
alcoholism in the parents.
| A Family History
Ancestor Max Jukes, born in New
| vi N III ltAU, was a luLJ u
| Of his descendants 1900 were proved
to be occupants of penal and Chart
| able institutions before 1874. Not one
| was ever elected to public Office and
not one ever served in the army Or
navy, or in any way helped public
welfare. On the contrary they cost
society more than $1,000 each, or n
| total of $1,200,000. Three hundred
and ten were in poorhouses, 1900
years in all; 800, one in four of his
descendants, died in childhood; 440
were viciously diseased; 400 were
physically wrecked early by their own
viciousness; so were notorious wom-
en-; were murderers; SO habitual
thieves; 1870 were convicted for mis-
cellaneous crimes