In the May number of the VERMONT MEDICAL MONTHLY, Doctor Marvin has set forth in an admirable manner the results obtained by many different observers in different parts of the world as to the effects of alcohol upon the human organism. Experiments conducted by men of the highest scientific attainment have proved that alcohol, taken in large or small quantities is NOT a stimulant but is a paralyzer of protoplasmic activity in all departments, both physical and mental.

This assertion is made on the assumption that mental activity depends upon the functional integrity of the protoplasmic elements constituting the central nervous system and the brain in particular. We know that healthy, normal thought must mean a healthy, normal brain. There is nothing in this conception antagonistic to the spiritualistic theory of mind. The brain becomes here simply the organ by means of which the spirit or soul reveals itself. The individual differences which different persons show are but the expressions of the different instruments or brains, which the soul uses to get in touch with the outside world. One soul may be postulated as being of essentially the same substance as another.

The pathological effects of a continued use of alcohol upon all the organs of the body, and upon the nervous system in particular, have long been so well known that no description of such changes is here necessary and will not be attempted. We have to accept the fact that alcohol is a poison to protoplasm and will change the integrity of, and eventually destroy, any cell with which it is brought in contact for any length of time. A small drink is productive of loquaciousness and motor restlessness in many individuals, but such a state is not due to the stimulative effects of alcohol upon the brain; rather is it the paralyzing of the inhibitory paths within the brain, so that fancy runs riot, unchecked by judgment and good sense.

Perhaps no better illustration of the evils alcoholic indulgence can be supplied than those furnished by its effects upon savage tribes, to whom alcohol was first introduced by so‐called civilized individuals. Civilization carries with it not alone a great many virtues but also, unfortunately, a great many defects and vices, which latter are the more easily assimilated by the native and primitive tribes, possessing, as they do, less resistive powers than do their new and civilized neighbors. The result is that disease and deterioration, both physical and mental, soon bring ruin to such natives as are unfortunate enough to be brought in contact with our boasted civilization.

To anyone who has given any time and thought to the study of alcohol and its effect upon mankind, a question naturally arises. Why is it that certain individuals manifest appetites and cravings which can be satisfied only by alcoholic indulgence? To the mind of the writer, the explanation is that heredity and congenital endowment lie behind it to a large extent. The misfits are the ones who most largely fall under the bane of alcohol. A study of the mental constitution of those individuals who have become victims of this dreadful curse to man, and who, in consequence, have been committed to the State Hospital at Waterbury, has developed a conviction in the mind of the writer that the majority of such individuals are hopeless so far as reformation is concerned. They are unreliable and have little sense of honor. If they have any true and honest longings to become citizens of a higher order, they fail to show any indications of such a state of mind. True it is that, with all the assurance in the world, they will protest that their drinking days are over, that never again will they permit themselves to so much as taste anything containing alcohol, that they would as soon die as to become reduced to the state in which they came to the hospital. Words, mere words! The thoughts of many of these individuals, amid these protestations, were even then forming plans for a debauch, as the sequel has often proved. It is true that there are many cases where normal individuals, who, for some reason or another, perhaps because of unfavorable environment, unthinkingly have become addicted to the excessive use of alcohol. These are the ones who respond favorably to the right kind of care and treatment. These cases possess the powers which enable them to overcome appetites which, in these particular instances, are not instinctive but acquired. The power which gave them this stability lies wrapped up in protoplasmic stability inherited from a line of normal ancestors.

In the words of Davenport, "the bad environment has its result first and chiefly on those individuals with an hereditary predisposition toward narcotics and this hereditary bias is stronger in some families than others, depending on the nature of the family trait, and it occurs in a larger proportion of the cases in some families than others, depending on the nature of the matings that have occurred in that family."

The comparatively new science of eugenics, based upon the Mendelian laws of heredity, has taught us and more and more is teaching us that capabilities and capacities depend more upon our parents and grandparents than upon environmental conditions. There seems to be no mistake about this: the germ plasm contains the determiners which go to make up the individual. This has been demonstrated by thousands of experiments in the breeding of the lower animals. It is being shown to be true in the study of the family histories of the inmates of our insane hospitals and penal institutions. The twelve hundred defective descendants of one Ada Juke, imbecile and prostitute, is a case in point. Davenport gives this pedigree of a "family of drunkards," which shows the hereditary character and effects of alcoholism and imbecility. An alcoholic, a basket‐maker, married a feebleminded woman. From these two individuals in four generations sprang nearly forty alcoholic, immoral, imbecilic and epileptic offspring.

It has long been noted that alcoholism, by its poisonous influence upon the germ plasm, frequently has been productive of degeneration in the descendants of those afflicted with alcoholism. Insanity, imbecility, epilepsy and other neuroses may be cited as a few degenerative states which may originate with alcohol as a cause. The history of a case recently admitted to the State Hospital bears upon this point.

An alcoholic, but so far as known, otherwise normal man (I. 1) married a feeble‐minded woman (I. 2) They had one child, a male, (II. 1), feeble‐minded and alcoholic, who married a feeble‐minded woman, (II. 2). Three children were born of these. (III. 1) was epileptic and alcoholic, committed to the State Hospital where he died from cerebral hemorrhage. (III. 2) and (III. 3) are feeble‐minded.

To use a term cacogenic‐‐the study of had heredity‐‐coined by Doctor Southard, we might well call immorality, imbecility and epilepsy the cacogenic triplets derived from alcoholic parentage.

If it is a fact that inebriety, in its true sense, is a form of degeneracy, what disposition of these individuals shall society make? It is patent that fines and jail sentences are of little avail in solving the problem. So long as society countenances the sale of alcohol just so long will these degenerates flood our courts and jails; so long as the manufacture of alcoholic beverages is allowed to go on unrestricted, obviously alcohol will easily find its way to those whose appetites crave it. What then can society do to meet this perplexing state of affairs? Segregation alone, or segregation and sterilization, seem to be the only means left, since no form of treatment can hope to change abnormal tissue into normal tissue. Defective they are and defective they will always remain. The civic consciousness is becoming more and more aware of the fact that inebriates are of the defective class. Society is beginning to feel the need of some form of treatment that will meet conditions in an appropriate way. Therefore, it is fair to assume that the future will find our jails free from this class of individuals; our state institutions will classify them and care for them as individuals abnormal and unfitted to be at large.