THE FUTURE RACE.

Grey River Argus, 10 July 1922, Page 4

THE FUTURE RACE.

In these days of falling birth rates, it is more than ever imperative to ensure that the quality of offspring shall be the highest possible. The following extract from the N.Z. Education Department Special Education Report No 13 indicates one grave cause of physical unfitness in nations. “There is a wider and more farreaching influence which alcohol may exert on the health and well-being of the community through its effect upon the reproductive cells and the offspring. There is definite evidence that the alcoholic habit causes degenerativechanges in the human reproductive cells, and experiments upon animals have shown that impaired development and vitality result in the offspring for several generations. Indeed, these bad effects have been shown to be more pronounced in the later generation, and also the injurious influence may be manifest in the offspring even when the genital glands of the parents appear to bo quite healthy. “These experiments, then, indicatethat parental alcoholism may have a seriously detrimental influence on the stock, and it is reasonable to conclude that this is one ot the most important modes in which intemperance threatens the health and welfare of the community. ’ ’ One effect of prohibition, according to Sir John Salmond, is that “it is quite feasible that the younger generation might grow up without cultivating the taste for alcohol.” Prohibition n N.Z. is worth a trial on that account; done.—N.Z. Alliance Publicity.