PARENTHOOD AND ALCOHOL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8689, 15 October 1913, Page 3

PARENTHOOD AND ALCOHOL

FOR THE SAKE OF THE GHJLO

' Dr. C. W. Saleeby made some : important statements with respect to the fact that alcohol is a racial poison at a recent meeting of the Society for the Study of Inebriety.

"Bertholet, the Swiss scientist," hesaid, "has made 210 autopsies, of which iOO were upon- chronic alcoholics, and in 82 per cent, he found morbid changes due to alcoholism. Bertholet's work teaches him .that'les glandes reproditetrices sont plus sensibles a 1? intoxication alcotique que les autres orgaues.' Bertholet. finds a simpl© explanation of this fact, which his paper demonstrates, in the. observations of Nicloux and Renault, who have demonstrated the remarkable rapidity with which alcohol passes into the reproductive glands from the blood-stream. . . "In point of.fact,;almost everything has yet to be learnt as to the influence of parental nutrition, tipon the offspring. Only we do know that, as Weismann now admits, as Darwin never doubted, as Galton himself admitted, there is such-an influence; and in the case of alcohol we have now proved that it is deleterious The practical conclusion is'surely-than which the present writer has for many years been trying to force upon the temperance party a.nd eugemsts alike as the first duty of both-'Protect parenthood from alcohol.'" . ■ . ■ ,