insanity. Under the influence of alcohol, the
individual constitution of the drinker becomes lowered and depraved,
and, according to the law of inheritance, is transmitted through the
progeny to the race.

Prof. Bollinger, the latest writer on inheritance of disease (Stuttgart,
1882--Cotta--Uber Dererbung von Krankheiten), names alcoholism among the
transient abnormal conditions which, during conception, exert their
influence, so that children of intemperate parents acquire pathological,
and especially neuro-pathological, dispositions. Intemperance, says this
author, in its acute, as well as in its chronic form, causes frequently
pathological changes in the nervous system, and thus may the
pathological differences in children of the same parents be partially
explained. On account of the inheritance of a depraved and pathological
constitution, the children of intemperate parents frequently suffer from
an abnormal psychical organization. As in the progeny of insane,
epileptics, suicides, and criminals, so also among the children of
drunkards, do we see cases of congenital idiocy and imbecility, of
neurasthenia and inebriety, of psychical and somatic degeneracy, also of
depraved morality, of vagrancy and crime.

Mr. President and Gentlemen: In the light of the enumerated facts,
nobody will dispute that intemperance is a fruitful as well as
inexhaustible source for the increase and development of insanity; and
that every effort toward diminution of the frequency of insanity, toward
the prevention of mental diseases, must be directed against this
widespread evil, intemperance.

May your noble society succeed in confining this torrent of evil in a
narrower growing bed, and to deliver mankind from a curse which cannot
be too much contended with.

* * * * *

PLANTAIN AS A STYPTIC.

[Footnote: Read at the meeting of the Amer. Pharm. Assoc.]

By J.W. COLCORD.

Several articles during the past few months, copied from English
pharmaceutical journals, calling attention to the styptic properties of
plantain leaves--Plantago major--having attracted my attention, I
determined to try a few experiments when opportunity offered. Having a
shiftless neighbor whose yard produced a bountiful crop of the article,
I was easily able to secure an abundant supply for my experiments.
Believing that better results would be obtained from fresh plants than
from dried, I expressed the juice from them by