Temperance Column.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 265, 4 October 1902, Page 1

Temperance Column.

[advertisement.]

, ~ ■ O (Published by arrangement). ALCOHOL AND HEREDITY. Writing to the Daily News, London, Mr Robert H. Sherard says Chronic alcoholism, with all that that state brings in its train, can be reached by people who have ncvei once in their lives been the “ woi*se for liquor.” I can give you a startling example o i the mischief which steady alcoholisation can produce, an example I have on the a uthori'y of M. fugues Leroux, the French' publicist, under whose direct observation the case was-brought. Some monvhs ago a workman and hia wife, accompanied by -a small bey of four, waited on Dr Gamier, the physician who presides ever the insanity ward a‘ the Paris Depot or Central Police Station. The pawn's were in great distress, aid the story they had to tell was that on two occasions the lad, their son, who was with them, had attempted to murder hm baby brother. On the last o.casioii the mother had just arrived in tirm ti prevent him from cutting the baby’s threat with a pair of scissors. Examined by Dr Gamier, the child declared that it was quite true that he wished to murder his brother, and that it was his firm intention to accomplish his purpose sooner or later. Tak the parents into an adjoining room, Dr Gander said to the father, “ Are you a drinker ?” The man protested indignantly. He had never been drunk in his life. His wife backed up his assertion. Hehusband, she said, was the most sober of men. “ Hold out your hand at arm’s length,’’ said the xnad-doctor. The man obeyed. After a few seconds the hand began that- devil’s dance to which alcohol fiddles the tune. “ As I thought,” said the mad doctor. “My poor fellow, you are an alooholique.” He questioned the man, who, with tears in his eyes, related that, being a brewer’s ■ drayman, it was his duty to deliver casks. of beer to his master’s customers, carrying the casks up to the various stages. A glass of wine was usually offered to him as a pourbolre. The total quantity so absorbed by him amounted to a litre or a litre and a half perdiem. This had been going on steadily for several years. “With the result,” said the doctor, “ that you, who have never been drunk, have become so completely alcoholisad that you have transmitted to that unfortunate baby in the next room a form of epilepsy which has developed into homicidal mania.” This case should enlighten your readers on the unwholcsomeness of any liquid containing alcoh >l. If drinking be a sin, lb is cue of those sins which are paid for often by the sinner’s generations. I have no doubt 'hat much of the insanity, sterility, and physical degeneration which qualify the descendants of so many “ old families ’’ proceed from the fact that their ancestors, having the means to indulge, steadily soaked throughout .centuries. Their I'e-cendants are paying the bill, succumbing where their contemporaries, Dsue of families as old, but, perforce, sob >r throughout the past, flourish, breed, and prosper.