intemperance. That some persons inherit a greater degree of nervous and
organic susceptibility than others, and are, in consequence of this
greater susceptibility, more readily affected by a given quantity of
narcotic, anæsthetic or intoxicant, is undoubtedly true. And that such
will


"MORE READILY BECOME DRUNKARDS,

"if they once commence to use intoxicating drinks, is also true. But that
such persons, or any others, have the slightest inherent or
constitutional taste or any longing for intoxicants, until they have
acquired such taste or longing by actual use, we find no reliable proof.
It is true that statistics appear to show that a larger proportion of
the children of drunkards become themselves drunkards, than of children
born of total abstainers. And hence the conclusion has been drawn that
such children INHERITED the constitutional tendency to inebriation. But
before we are justified in adopting such a conclusion, several other
important facts must be ascertained.

"1st. We must know whether the mother, while nursing, used more or less
constantly some kind of alcoholic beverage, by which the alcohol might
have impregnated the milk in her breasts and thereby made its early
impression on the tastes and longings of the child.

"2d. We must know whether the intemperate parents were in the habit of
frequently giving alcoholic preparations to the children, either to
relieve temporary ailments, or for the same reason that they drank it
themselves. I am constrained to say, that from my own observation,
extending over a period of forty years, and a field by no means limited,