nment [page 167]. Other diseases than the infectious seem to be
inherited, of which gout is an example. In gout there is an unusual
action of the cells of the body which leads to the formation and the
retention in the body of substances which are injurious. Here it is
not the disease which is inherited, but the variation in structure to
which the unusual and injurious action of the cells is due.

While tuberculosis and gout represent instances in which, although the
disease itself is not inherited yet the presence of the disease in the
ascendants so affects the germinal material that the offspring is more
susceptible to these particular diseases, much more common are the
cases in which disease in the parents produces a defective offspring,
the defect consisting in a general loss of resistance manifested in a
variety of ways, but not necessarily repeating the diseased condition
of the parent. In these cases the disease in the parents affects all
the cells of the body including the germinal cells, and the defective
qualities in the germ cells will affect the cells of the offspring
which are derived from these. There is a tendency in these cases to
the repetition in the offspring of the disease of the parents, because
the particular form of the parental disease may have been due to or
influenced by variation of structure. One of the best examples of
affection of the offspring by diseased conditions of the parents
produced by a toxic agent which directly or indirectly affects all the
cells of the body is afforded by alcohol when used in excess. Since
drunkenness has become a medical rather than a moral question, a great
deal of reliable data has accumulated in regard to it as a factor in
the heredity of disease. Grotjahn gives the following examples: Six
families were investigated in which there were thirty-one children. In
all these families the father and grandfather on the father's side
were chronic alcoholics, and in certain of the families drunkenness
prevailed in the more remote ancestors. The following was the fate of
the children: eight died shortly after birth of general weakness,
seven died of convulsions in the first month, three were malformed,
three were idiotic, three were feeble-minded, three were dwarfs, three
were epileptics, two were normal. In a second group of three families
there were twenty children. The fathers were drunkards, but their
immediate ancestors were free: four children died of general weakn