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IS CONSUMPTION CAUSED, OR PROMOTED, BY THE DRUNKENNESS OF PARENTS?

The documents allow of the following table: --

I confess to a feeling of surprise when considering this table. I had supposed that medical opinion would be more unanimous in its condemnation of intemperance in parents, because of its effect upon the offspring, and its tendency to cause consumption. But it would seem that drunkenness, amid the many horrors that it entails upon the offspring, does not, in the minds of a great many of the profession, tend to cause consumption. Out of our two hundred and ten correspondents, only one hundred and nine (51.43 per cent.) answer in the affirmative, viz., that they believe drunken parents bring consumption upon the children. One hundred and one (48.09 per cent.), on the contrary, take either the negative, or are doubtful, or decline to answer.

There is another rather curious result of the above table which, as prepared, shows the number of correspondents in and out of the State. It is this, viz.: that in Massachusetts there is less belief in the power of intoxication to cause the begetting and rearing of consumptive children than there is out of the State. This is shown by the different proportions of affirmative answers, in the two, viz.: 64.18 per cent, of those outside of the State, to 46.15 per cent, from Massachusetts. Moreover, there seems less doubt about the question, among physicians outside, than among those resident within the State. We cannot, of course, draw positive conclusions from such small numbers. Nevertheless, this seems to me a singular result, when I remember that here in Massachusetts, discussion on the evil results of intemperance have been going on for so many years; and, in which State, therefore, one must believe that the results of intemperance must have been brought to the notice of the profession and the public as much, at least, as elsewhere.

Extracts from Correspondents' letters upon this question.

Reynolds. -- Yes, by producing feeble offspring.

Hammond. -- Drunkenness of parents deprives children of the comforts of life -- often of proper covering for their bodies, of proper food, or lodging, and thus their vital energies are exhausted, and any disease is liable to develop itself.

Jordan. -- I have never seen a parent who drank to excess who did not have consumptive children.

Hunt. -- A drunken parentage is a cause.

Fiske. -- No, no further than surrounding circumstances bear upon the case.

Dwight. -- Sometimes, by neglect and bad food.

Gavin. -- Yes, especially when the mother is a drunkard.

Holmes. -- No, except by the neglect it causes.

Richmond. -- Some cases may be found where poverty may cause too close confinement and a lack of suitable nourishment, where it may be a cause.

Harris. -- By defective organization and impaired vitality.

Fisher. -- I cannot say I have known cases where drunkenness has directly caused consumption by the effects of liquor on the system. Cases of phthisis occurring in the progeny of drunkards are so constantly preceded by poverty, neglect, exposure and violations of the laws of health that it would be difficult to determine what agency drunkenness had in causation, other- wise than in producing the circumstances under which they occurred. In a few cases the children of drunkards, or of those addicted to the excessive use of ardent spirits, without positive intoxication, and in comfortable circumstances, I have been able to satisfy myself that the disease was due to other causes.

FIFTH QUESTION.

IS CONSUMPTION CAUSED OR PROMOTED BY THE DRUNKENNESS OF AN INDIVIDUAL?

On this question there seems a great diversity of opinion. The table is as follows: --

Thirty-three (15.71 per cent.) decline to answer the question; thirteen (6.19 per cent.) are doubtful; forty-seven (22.38 per cent.) say "no," while one hundred and nine (51.90 per cent.) of the two hundred and ten correspondents answer decidedly in the affirmative, and eight say that the disease occurs in consequence of the disturbance caused in the stomach and digestion by the beastly habit of intemperance.

The question, undoubtedly, is a difficult one; meanwhile, it cannot be said that medical opinion, as tested by this correspondence, sustains the idea that consumption necessarily is caused or promoted by intemperance in the use of alcohol. Meanwhile, some very singular coincidences, to say the least, arise, in which consumptive tendencies seem to disappear with a really intemperate use of liquor, a reference to some of which will be found under next question.