Excerpt from The Social and Political Relations of Drunkenness: Two LecturesN ow, if there be a predisposition to any disease of the brain or ner vous system, alcohol will excite that predisposition into activity. But smaller doses will be as effectual in persons thus predisposed as large doses in persons otherwise constituted. Insanity is thus often induced where there is a family predisposition, or paralysis and various other affections of this kind.These results concern the individual in his social relations as well as, the merely personal. It is more particularly, however, as a husband and father that the drunkard must be considered. It has been found that the morbid condition of the brain of the drunkard is often transmitted to his offspring, so that his child will present the same want of mental balance, the same infirmities of will, the same development of the appe titas and passions, the same tendency to insanity and diseases of the brain, as he manifests. And just as drunkenness will induce insanity and imbecility in the drunkard, so may the children of the drunkard be born in a state of imbecility or insanity. Nor does this result stop with one generation. I have traced it in several instances to the third gene ration, and in one or two, to the fourth. Dr Browne of the Crichton Institution for the Insane, says that he has repeatedly had the care of three generations of drunkards, and that he has traced the tendency back for one hundred and fifty years.This hereditary defect in the constitution of the children and descend ants of drunkards is worthy much more attention than it has hitherto received. If the evils of drunkenness ceased with the individual drunk ard, they would be limited, however gigantic, but where shall we place limits to this leprosy of the soul, which multiplies its victims according to the law of increase of a drunken population?About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.