American Branch of the International Temperance Bureau. Purpose, Methods, Advantages, Membership. An Educational Temperance Organization Purpose. To make know in every possible way, in popular form, the prom facts of science concerning the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics, in order to secure intelligent conviction based on demonstrated fact. Methods. The dissemination of facts by the following and other methods: Personal Correspondence, An Editor's Press Circular, Loan Exhibit of Scientific Charts, Popular Leaflets, The School Physiology Journal, A Stereopticon Lecture. Tts Membership Advantages. All members receive free The School Physiology Journal, notices of useful new publications, samples of leaflets or other information published by the Federation. Associate Membership is open to all who desire (1) to have fuller acquaintance with the alcohol and narcotic question which membership in the Federation affords, or (2) to help extend popular knowledge of the truth on these subjects, or (3) to promote a rational educational method of preventing intemperance. All who contribute $2.00 or more annually are known as Associate Members. All contributors of $10.00 or more annually are known as Sustaining Members. The payment of $100.00 or more constitutes one a Life Member. The Scientific Temperance Federation has unique place to fill; a distinct message and work. Its aims are fundamental and practical. THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION, 23 Trull Street, Boston, Mass. Scientific Temperance Journal, 1 what is degeneraogressive I can not lencies. > germ is d which ed weak a germ : manner nmediate : inheriqualities are not new ined from 1 propaions by tophthoeritance, petus to species. eases of of all ch "im disturning of concrete nor here tatistics, > threeig from nents of Demme which e JOUR any Vol. XIX BOSTON, December, 1909 Happiness No. 4 Happy is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own shining. Such an one moves on human life as stars move over dark seas to bewildered mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south.-Henry Ward Beecher. I The True Story of Inheritance BY AUGUST FOREL, M. D. Formerly Professor of Psychiatry, University of Zurich N the past there has been much idle talk on the subject of inheritance, and it must be admitted that we know precious little about it, though the subject is not so obscure as it used to be. Doubtless we can say that in most cases of mental disturbance many causes co-operate, and that if we examine individual cases we shall find that the most important of these causes is usually an inherited tendency. That is true at least of those disturbances which are not directly caused by wounds, bacterial infection, or poisoning. But what people have forgotten far too often in the past is to ask, Where does the inherited tendency come from? Why do people come into the world with a strong tendency to mental and nervous diseases? The answer, "Because their parents or ancestors were mentally diseased," is not satisfactory, for where did these get their disease or tendency to it? The sickly tendency must be introduced somewhere, and so the question comes back to the following: What causes produce or maintain in a given race or a given generation the tendency to engender mental and nervous disturbances in their descendants? Since only that can be inherited which affects or injures the germ plasm itself, purely acquired local disease of the nervous system as such can produce no pathological tendency in the germ. Moreover, since under normal conditions of life inherited pathological tendencies gradually tend to disappear in the From Nervous and Mental Hygiene. Copyright by course of a few generations through what is called degeneration, a progressive degeneration must have causes which are progressive or at least continually renewed, and can not rest altogether on old inherited tendencies. Every influence through which the germ is poisoned or otherwise injured and which thus lays the foundation for inherited weakness in a healthy stock, can be called a germcorruption (blastophthoria), and the manner in which it makes itself felt in the immediate descendants can be called improper inheritance; improper because in it the qualities already present in the ancestors are not handed over to the descendants, but new inferior or pathological qualities proceed from the deteriorated germ-cells, and then propagate themselves in future generations by common, "proper" inheritance. Blastophthoria is thus the worst form of inheritance, because it continually gives new impetus to the progressive degeneration of the species. Moreover, it engenders not only diseases of the nervous system, but weaknesses of all bodily organs. The great type of such "improper" hereditary causes of mental disturbances is afforded by alcoholic poisoning of the germ, and there is plenty of concrete evidence for its existence. [The author here quotes as evidence life insurance statistics, data showing that from one-half to threequarters of idiots and epileptics spring from alcoholic parents, the animal experiments of Hodge, Laitinen, and the studies of Demme and others on alcoholic inheritance which have been frequently published in the JOURNAL.] Post-mortem examination will show any physician who will open his eyes the deleterious effect of alcohol on the bodily tissue, just as his practice will show its degenerative influence. In Sweden and Norway which were most seriously given over to alcohol and degenerated in the first half of the nineteenth century, the strict reform which took place about fifty years ago has resulted not only in preventing an increase in the number of mental disturbances and a diminution of crimes, but also in an important increase in the number of young men capable of military service, though only lately; while in central Europe the opposite conditions have produced opposite results. In like contrast to the Swedes, formerly healthy primitive races began to degenerate when Europeans have taught them to drink, such as many Indian races, Negroes and Malays. Other kinds of poisoning can also cause degeneration of the germ cells, such as those which result from other narcotics, syphilis and tuberculosis; though this last does not injure the germs of the nervous system so much. Then, too, a very deteriorative effect is produced by factory life, by being shut up in bad air, by scanty nutrition, and by all one-sided or insufficient activities. Here, to be sure, there are no unambiguous figures as to the effects upon the nervous system as such; but it always degenerates with the other organs, just as the other bodily tissues degenerate with the nervous system in the case of alcoholic poisoning. Truth in a dungeon is truth still and is on the way to victory, and error on a throne is error still and is on the way to defeat. MCKINLEY. The following article together with several others in this JOURNAL give a partial summary of the progress of the scientific battle against alcohol which has been waged unceasingly during the past year. They are taken from the forthcoming annual report of the Scientific Temperance Federation. T HE Bishop of Durham said recently in a public sermon: "We find now the consent and agreement of doctors on the subject of alcohol to a vast degree going in a direction opposite to that which they took in 1859. Then their opinion might be summed up thus: "A little wine or beer or a very moderate amount of spirits is good for most people, but there are some who can do without it, and some who would be much better without it. 'Their opinion summed up now would be something like this: "For the vast majority of the human race nothing of the kind is the best rule; there are a few exceptions for whom it is either good or gives no harm.'” THE SUBJECT HAS BECOME A SCIENCE Standard definitions of "science", as "What is known about a subject systematically arranged", warrants applying the term "science" to the branch of knowledge which deals with the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics. A view of the subject as a systematic whole is furnished by the program of a hygienic exposition to be held in 1911 in the city of Dresden. One section of the exposition is to be devoted to alcohol, in charge of Professor Gruber, Director of the Hygienic Institute of the University of Munich. The topics are arranged as follows: The action of alcohol-physiological, pharmacological, toxic; mental effects; as a cause of disease, degeneracy, and death; history of alcoholism; production and use of alcoholic drinks; extent of alcoholism; economic and social causes and consequences of alcoholism; methods of combatting; by society, voluntary organizations, legislation (revenue, monopoly, license, local option), by instruction in the schools, rescue work, care of inebriates. The great civic exposition this winter in Boston, known as the, Boston-1915 Exposition, visited during its six weeks duration by thousands of persons, included in its Health Department, a large exhibit of the charts of the Scientific Temperance Federation, illustrating the effects of alcohol in health, longevity, efficiency and heredity. Several of the scientific topics have been the subject of special investigations or reports during the past year. The more important of these are treated elsewhere under separate heads; others requiring at least brief mention are reviewed here. |