John Milner Fothergill

“ There is, however, a still grimmer aspect of this subject than even the effects of repeated indulgence upon the mental attitude of the individual himself, and that is the influence which such indulgence will and must exercise upon the nervous system of his offspring. We are all of us "the outcome of the coöperation of countless ancestral forces," and each of us is individually indebted to his ancestors for every act of self-restraint, every act of self-denial or control exercised by each of them. Our forefathers, in forming their own character, were insensibly fashioning ours. ”

“ The consumptive patient just dropping into the grave will indulge in plans stretching far into the future, ignoring his real condition, and the impossibility of any such survival as he is calculating upon. ”

“ The great one is that people at large are too much accustomed and inclined to regard delirium as aimless, objectless mental action—a chaos of broken ideas and unconnected thoughts, or an uncovering of the sewers of the mind, the revealing of secrets not always innocent. ”

“ What, then, can we legitimately expect to be manifested in the next generation? Further, if children are taught to frequent taverns, and drink there on holidays and Sundays, by their fond but foolish parents, what effect must this exert upon the character during the plastic period of youth and growth? How far are the inherited mental constitution and nervous system, already depraved to start with, still further modified by such experience of the individual in childhood, when "wax to receive but marble to retain?" ”

“ Doubtless there are many thrifty, sober, self-respecting, and industrious working-men; but it cannot be denied that the proportion of such men to the whole body is less now than it was in days not far gone by. The character of the masses has been undergoing grave modifications in recent times; and the fashioning hand of alcohol can be clearly traced in the production of the results. ”

“ Leaving then, for the present, the question of the use of alcohol in disease, its effect upon the body temperature, and its position as a food, we may profitably engage ourselves for a little time with its social effects, alike upon the individual and the masses, especially in reference to its influence upon the mental manifestations of brain-activity. It is now universally acknowledged that mental alterations follow physical modifications of the brain, as seen in the various forms of insanity. ”

“ Whatever may be the effect of monotonous occupations, of bad hygienic surroundings, of improper food in infancy, and the physical deterioration which results from large aggregations of individuals, there can be no question but that repeated alcoholic indulgence is gradually modifying the character of the masses. It is seen in the growing insubordination, in the turbulence, the impatience of control, in the tendency to assert their opinion on subjects of which they are not in a position to judge ”

“ There is such a villainous state of temper, at times ascending to ferocity, that the person becomes simply intolerable; the unfortunate sufferers themselves being still further tortured by the haunting impression that they are utterly unreasonable, and that their attitude does not arise from any provocation from without, but that it takes its origin in some abnormal condition existing within. In one case well known to me the sufferer sought relief in religious exercises, in resort to her Bible and to prayer—it is needless to say without the desired result. ”

“ Such mental changes are commonly found in those undergoing degenerative physical changes, not only in the very aged, but in those passing into premature decay; in fact, mental impairment and decay are but the evidences or outcomes of the implications of brain-tissue in the general degeneration. We are, of course, most familiar with such changes in the very old, in whom we regard them as almost normal. The mental grasp is imperfect and illusive; petulance and caprice are the characteristics, especially of those in whom the intellect was never very strong. ”

“ The progress of physiological psychology, of the investigation of the workings of the mind, has taught us, in unmistakable accents, the strong tendency which exists for a habit to be formed by repetition of anything. After a thing has been done several times it becomes exceedingly easy to do it again. ”

“ In fact, we see the habitual self-restraint slowly developed by the exertions of many ancestors, by the efforts of the individual himself, aided by the training given by education, for the time being withdrawn to a great extent. Every time this act is repeated the greater the tendency for the character to manifest its lower rather than its higher forms. The character is indeed being slowly modified, and that, too, in a most undesirable direction. It is being gradually deprived of much that a slow process of civilization has given it. ”

“ We do not consider, perhaps, because the subject is repugnant to us, how much our psychical attitude, even to religious, the highest of all thought, is based upon conditions of the body; that body which theologians of the old school denominate vile, which they would trample under foot, nay, even ignore, yet which is reigning supreme and dominating and directing them in their highest aspirations. ”

“ In the one there are long intervals of sobriety, during which the effects of the debauch will, to a great extent, wear off; in the other the act will be repeated as often as opportunity will permit; one act of indulgence will lead to, indeed will induce another, and the oft and quickly repeated act will become a constant habit, whose effects are soon felt. It is not in women alone that the hopeless nature of drinking habits in certain susceptible organisms is manifested; it is equally seen in men where the nervous system lacks stability. ”

“ The delirium of fever is a familiar instance of the influence exercised by passing bodily conditions upon the brain and its product—thought.
When the nutrition of the brain is good, we experience an agreeable sense of well-being, which shows itself distinctly in after-dinner geniality. When the nutrition is imperfect, or the arterial blood is of abnormal composition, the consequences are a mixture of irritability and bad temper, blended with depression. We are all familiar with the crossness of the hungry man ”

“ The progress of civilization has endowed us with a measure of self-control, has tended to subordinate the unit of the mass—to encourage the evolution of the citizen as compared to the mere individual. The effect of alcoholic indulgence to excess is to institute retrogressive changes, and to undo, to a great extent, what civilization has slowly achieved.—Sanitary Record. ”

“ Instead of the well-sustained blood-pressure of the early stages with the stimulant gout-poison irritating the cerebral cells into activity, we have the stimulant quality of the blood together with an impaired and insufficient supply. The resultant product is a blended compound of irritability and suspicion, bad temper and anxiety, the latter all the more aggravating from a consciousness that it is not mere illusion, but an emotional hallucination.
Such individuals are the terror of their dependents and the bêtes noires of their domestics. ”

“ There are two other mental attitudes which are not directly associated with bodily disease, but which exercise so distinct an influence over physical conditions, especially in sickness, that they may not improperly be considered here, though not quite falling within the scope of this paper. One is that condition of mental impairment in which the intellect becomes servile. It is usually shown by elderly people, who are utterly dependent on the bounty, and therefore on the will, of others. ”

“ Consequently, we can see distinctly and with painful clearness that repeated indulgence in alcoholic stimulation, not necessarily extending to visible intoxication, must tend, by virtue of this law, to modify and mould the character. Under alcohol the individual becomes sanguine, reckless, careless of consequences, boastful, and indisposed to sober calculation; he also becomes self-assertive, arrogant, and boisterous; there exist a certain impulsiveness and impatience of control, and a distinct tendency to reach certain ends by violence, if other measures do not seem likely to be successful. ”

“ The deterioration of character produced by protracted drunkenness is notorious. While the intellect becomes enfeebled by excess, the moral character becomes profoundly modified; the forces which ordinarily restrain others are in abeyance—perhaps too often their influence has gone forever; the indifference toward the interests of others progresses alongside a waxing selfishness, a complete absorption in self. ”

“ As our forefathers insensibly and unconsciously built up the character of the present generation, so it, in its turn, is fashioning the character of its successors, its unborn offspring. No wonder, then, that the morale as well as the physique of the masses in large towns is undergoing already retrograde changes ”