Scourges of to-day (venereal disease, cancer, tuberculosis, alcoholism) / by E.T. Burke.

  • Burke, E. T. (Edmund Tytler), 1888-1941.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Scourges of to-day (venereal disease, cancer, tuberculosis, alcoholism) / by E.T. Burke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of alcohol that degeneration will express itself in some other manner. When alcohol is available, this class of people gradually eliminates itself. The chronic alco¬ holic becomes unable to reproduce ; in time he becomes sterile. It is interesting and impor¬ tant in this connection to consider the results of certain breeding experiments* with refer¬ ence to alcohol. These have been carried on for more than twelve years; and the con¬ clusion from these investigations is that during three generations the descendants of alcoholic great-great-grandparents show a constant eradication of defectives, and that the final group consist of very strong and healthy individuals. All the unfit have been weeded out. If one surveys the genus man, one sees the same thing in human history. Those peoples which have an alcoholic history are the strong races of to-day—mentally, morally, and physically. In these there has been the consistent elimination by alcohol of the unfit. The principal effect of the total prohibition of alcohol IsTo encourage the perpetuation of an mherently~degenerate stock, the degeneration becomihg]^rpi^jmxEe3TS--time~goes on. One’s view is that alcohol has a definite and valuable place in human life, but that it must * Guinea-pigs were the animals used.