NATIONAL EUGENICS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1299, 30 November 1911, Page 9

NATIONAL EUGENICS.

OFFSPRING AND ALCOHOLISM. GREAT INVESTIGATION'S RESULTS. Since Dr. Pockley, the president of tho Medical Conference, held at Sydney recently, discoursed upon the question of alcoholism and race degeneracy, one or two -sensation-hunting and self-advertising mediocrities have disputed tho president's ■finding that the one was in no way correlative to the other. This finding is not now, but it is none .tho worse of repetition. A good story cannot bo too often told, provided it is true, and a scientific truth loses nothing by reiteration, while it is certain to reach someone hitherto uninformed, or perhaps remove an erroneous impression mudo by those who talk much, but know little, of the science of eugenics. Out of pure ignoranco many reckless statements have been put into circulation concerning tho effect of alcoholic indulgence upon tho physical development and intellectual activity of the children of thoso who so indulge and has for many years, says "The Times" (London), furnished material for tho eloquence of total abstainers, and has almost invariably been assumed to be injurious. As much as sixty years ago so generally philosophical and accurato a thinker as the lalo Dr. W. B. Carpenter permitted himself to writo of "tho innumerable diseased organisms which spring from the loins of tho drunkard," and the indiclment thus framed against excess has been repeated in many forms. ' A QUESTION OF ACCURACY. ■ Probably for the first time, the question of its accuracy has recently been subjected to strict inquiry; and ths results, so far as results have beep.; obtained, are set forth in a recent publica tion issued by the Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics. The" investigation has been conducted by Miss Ethel M. Elderton, Galton Research Scholar in the University of London, assisted by Professor Karl Pearson, F.R.S.; and its results have been so fa-: from confirming popular impressions upon tho subject to which they relate that tho authors of the report in which they are embodied may almost be said to apologise for them. , COLLATING EVIDENCE. . . "The inquiry which Miss Eldc"lon and Professor Pearson have conducted has been confined within the definite limits indicated by the words 'childhood' and 'children,' and has not extended to the very important question (concerning which materials aro being collected) of whether the offspring of alcoholics on reaching adult age have any greater tendency than persons of normal parentage to become alcoholics themselves. The immediate object has been to ascertain whether the children of alcoholics present any appreciable inferiority to the children of sober people, in respect cither of- physical development, of intellectual activity, or of acuteness of sense perception; and tho inquirers have so far been unable to obtain any evidence in support of. an affirmative conclusion. EXAMINATION OF CHILDREN. . .' . "The materials available for the conduct of the investigation have been derived from two sources, an account of thechildren of tho 'special' schools of Man-' Chester, compiled by Miss Mary Dendy, and a report from the Edinburgh Charity . Organisation Society concerning tho children of ono of the ordinary'elementary schools of that city.. ..The total, num;ber of children examined was-,'as"far ai' wo can make ont, in Edinburgh.sßs boys and 477 girls, in Manchester 1433 boys and 1109 girls, or a gross total "of' 3004 children. .-.••■ -...-■ CLASSIFYING PARENTS. "In the report details wore given as to the degreo and kind of tho drinking of the parents, who were divisible into five classes—(l) teetotaller, (2) sober, (3) sus-' pectod to drink, (-0 drinks, (5) has bouts of drinking. Classes 1 and 3 were too small to be kept separate, and information given about tho teetotallers was inclnded with tho sober, and suspected drinkers with drinkers. CONCLUSIONS ARRIVED AT/ "The general conclusions arrived- at are stated in the following terms:— "(1) Thero is a higher death-rate among the offspring of alcoholic than among the offspring of sober parents, but owing to the greater fertility of alcoholic parents, the net family of the sober is hardly larger than tho net family of the alcoholic. "(2) The mean weight and height of the children of alcoholic parents aro slightly greater than those of sober parents, but as the age of the former children is slightly greater the correlations when corrected for age are 'slightly positive—i.e., thero is slightly greater height and wbight in the children of the sober. . "(3) The wages of the alcoholic as contrasted with those of the sober parent show a slight difference compatible with the employers* dislike for an alcoholic employee, but wholly inconsistent with a marked mental or physical inferiority in the alcoholic parent. "(1) The general health of the children of alcoholic parents appears on the whole slightly better than that of (the children of) sober parents. There are fewer delicate children, and in a most marked way. cases of tuberculosis and epilepsy are less frequent than among the childien of sober parents. "(j) Parental alcoholism is not tho source of menial defect in offspring. "(6) The relationship, if any, between pareutul alcoholism and filial intelligence is so slight that even its sign' cannot bo determined from the present material. "(7) Tho normal visioned and normal refrnctionwl offspring appear to bo rather a preponderance in tho . families of the.drinking parents, the parents who have; 'bouts' givo intermediate results, but there is no substantial relations between goodness of sight and parental alcoholism. "(S) The frequency of diseases of the eye and eyelids, which migiit well be attributed to parental neglect, was found to havo little, if any, rehtion to parentsil alcoholism. THE SUMMING-UP. "To sum up, no marked relation has been found between the intelligence, phy. sique, or disease of the offspring and parental alcoholism in any of the categories investigated. On tho whole, the balai.ee turns us often in favour of the alcohclic as of tho non-alcoholic parentage. Otjier categories may givo a different nsfilt; but the 'experience of the authors with regard to the influence of environment has now been so considerable that they hardly believe large correlations are likely to occur." This surely is sufficiently conclusive for intelligent renders, nnd by this added to their own experience and general observation they will be able to refute- Iho ignorant statements of those who seek rather to make a sensation than to convey the truth. The only way to put down ficiisiitionalisin about this quosMoc k io strike out tho botlom line 3 on both papers.*