Consumption is much more common in alcoholic persons. The children of alcoholic parents are more prone to suffer from various nervous diseases, such as neurasthenia, hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, insanity, idiocy, and also from rheumatism and gout. Occasional excess in drinking is much less apt to produce permanent injury than habitual, immoderate drinking. Individuals differ enormously in their tolerance to alcohol. Treatment. The most useful and effective treatment can be conducted primarily, only where the patient is under complete control. Absolute abstinence from all forms of alcohol is the first requisite. Feeding every two hours with nutritious food will, in some degree, take away the craving for alcohol. Capsicum, one-thirtieth grain, with quinine sulphate, two grains three times daily, forms a good tonic. The medical treatment must be directed by a physician. When the general health of the patient has been reëstablished a cure of the habit should be attempted. Means to this end must be carefully selected to suit each case. If the sincere coöperation of the patient can be obtained, an outdoor occupation, at first, with the constant companionship of a suitable attendant, may be tried, preferably at some place remote from former haunts, and, if possible, from all sources of temptation; but hope should be held out that eventually, with mental stamina restored, the patient might be able to resume an environment and occupation perhaps more congenial to him. CHAPTER I Heredity How Characteristics are Transmitted-Reversion to Former Type -Strange Inheritances-Hereditary Diseases-Marriages Between Relatives-Hopeful Views. HEREDITY, broadly considered, consists in the transmission of certain characteristics from parents to offspring. More precisely speaking, it refers to the union of the contents of the germ cells of the parents in merging to form the single cell, which-by its division and subdivision-ultimately results in the production of a new individual. By the germ cells are meant those cells in the ovary of the female which give rise to the ovum or egg, and to those cells in the testicle of the male which form the spermatozoön, the essential body in the secretion of this organ. In accordance with this view, two cells, one from each parent, unite, and their contents form one new cell, which results in a new individual; but the only part of this new individual which will live to transmit its characteristics to a new generation is the germ cell, situated in its ovary if female or in its testicle if male. The infinitesimal quantity of the parental germ cells which is contained in the new germ cells of the offspring is held in |