t through her care of herself?

She ought also to understand the effect of alcohol and other poisons
in producing nerve degeneration in the individual, and its probability
in his posterity.

George McMichaels says: "The hereditary nature of the abnormal
condition of which inebriety is the outward sign is not understood,
even by physicians, as it should be. It is still, I regret to say,
looked upon as a vice acquired by the individual, the outcome of
voluntary wrongdoing. In some few cases this may be true, but in the
majority of instances inquiry into the family history will reveal the
presence of an inherited taint, such families usually showing a
neurotic condition. No position in the social or intellectual world
is, or ever has been, entirely free from the tendency towards
alcoholism, and a study of the family history of the great men who
have fallen victims to alcohol will show that the cause has been
identical with the case among the most obscure of mankind, viz.: That
a degenerated nerve condition has been inherited which renders the
sufferer specially susceptible to this and allied neuroses, such as
epilepsy, idiocy and suicide. The inheritance of an unstable nervous
system makes the individual easily affected by what I must call
'alcoholic surroundings.' In other words, the provocation to drink
which would have no influence upon an ordinary, stable nervous
organization, is sufficient to turn the neurotic into a confirmed
drunkard."

As a young woman you hold great power over the race in yourself, and
through your influence over others, especially over young men. Your
influence, wisely used, may save more than one from a drunkard's fate,
and to use it wisely you should be instructed as to the real character
of alcohol and its effects on the system. I have not time to tell you
in minutiae of the effects of alcohol, but I must take time to speak of
the law of heredity in this respect.

Idiocy and inebriety are on the increase among civilized peoples. This
startling fact should make us ask the reason.

T.D. Crothers, M.D., who is making a life study of inebriety, states
that from 1870 to 1890 inebriety increased in proportion to the
population over 100 per cent., and that a large proportion is the
result of inebriety in one or both parents. It is a sad fact that many
women, even of good social standing, are fond of alcoholic beverages.
I saw a very bright, pretty young woman not long since, at a
reception, re