d of time,
whether he has or has not this hereditary or acquired physical or mental
condition; and that, if it should exist, a discovery of the fact may
come too late.

Dr. D.G. Dodge, late Superintendent of the New York State Inebriate
Asylum, speaking of the causes leading to intemperance, after stating
his belief that it is a transmissible disease, like "scrofula, gout or
consumption," says:

"There are men who have an organization, which may be termed an
alcoholic idiosyncrasy; with them the latent desire for stimulants, if
indulged, soon leads to habits of intemperance, and eventually to a
morbid appetite, which has all the characteristics of a diseased
condition of the system, which the patient, unassisted, is powerless to
relieve--since the weakness of the will that led to the disease
obstructs its removal.

"Again, we find in another class of persons, those who have had healthy
parents, and have been educated and accustomed to good social
influences, moral and social, but whose temperament and physical
constitution are such, that, when they once indulge in the use of
stimulants, which they find pleasurable, they continue to habitually
indulge till they cease to be moderate, and become excessive drinkers. A
depraved appetite is established, that leads them on slowly, but surely,
to destruction."

A DANGEROUS DELUSION.

In this chapter, our chief purpose is to show the growth and awful power
of an appetite which begins striving for the mastery the moment it is
indulged, and against the encroachments of which no man who gives it any
indulgence is absolutely safe. He who so regards himself is resting in a
most dangerous delusion. So gradually does it increase, that few observe
its steady accessions of strength until it has acquired the power of a
master. Dr. George M. Burr, in a paper on the pathology of drunkenness,
read before the "American Association for the Cure of Inebriates,"
says, in referring to the first indications of an appetite, which he
considers one of the symptoms of a forming disease, says: "This early
stage is marked by an occasional desire to drink, which recurs at
shorter and shorter intervals, and a propensity, likewise, gradually
increasing for a greater quantity at each time. This stage has long been
believed to be one of voluntary indulgence, for which the subject of it
was morally responsible. The drinker has been held as criminal for his
occasional indulgence, and his example has b