Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/397

Rh arriving from the purely agricultural districts and those from the iron-work and colliery districts. This he attributed partly to their rougher ways and to the nature of their occupations, but still more to the drinking habits of the latter. That these last formed the chief factor in the production of the result was rendered probable by the large proportion of female subjects of general paralysis in that asylum. This disease is comparatively rare among women; and its prevalence among females from these districts Dr. Mitchell attributed to the habits of the women being allied to those of the men, especially as regards indulgence in drink.

Such, then, are some of the grave social outcomes of systematic indulgence in alcohol which arrest our attention. We have seen that its effects upon the nervous system are such as to give the rein to the lower centres, chiefly by lessening the control exercised by the higher and restraining portions of the brain. Man escapes from his wonted self-restraint when under the influence of alcohol, and stands before us with his fundamental character revealed. The groundwork of his character is exposed by the removal of the demeanor which he has carefully cultivated. The outside cover is withdrawn; all, or nearly all, that self-education or cultivation has given, is temporarily taken away. Through the revelations so made by alcohol we not rarely find that even in staid and proper men the tiger and the ape have not entirely died out. The animal propensities are thus discovered to have been concealed rather than subdued. For the time being the intoxicated individual is reft of much that not only he but his ancestors for generations back have studiously cultivated. For the time being he is a lower type of man. About the truth of this statement there can be no doubt.

The progress of physiological psychology, of the investigation of the workings of the mind, has taught us, in unmistakable accents, the strong tendency which exists for a habit to be formed by repetition of anything. After a thing has been done several times it becomes exceedingly easy to do it again. There is, in fact, in the nervous system a great readiness to take on an attitude which has been assumed before. We all recognize how it becomes necessary for every one to rehearse a part before acting it, and how quickly a species of habit or imitative attitude is formed. It is widely recognized that practice makes perfect, and that what was once difficult becomes easy by repetition of it. These are but illustrations of a law universally acknowledged. We all know how important it is to avoid what may become a habit. Consequently, we can see distinctly and with painful clearness that repeated indulgence in alcoholic stimulation, not necessarily extending to visible intoxication, must tend, by virtue of this law, to modify and mould the character. Under alcohol the individual becomes sanguine, reckless, careless of consequences, boastful, and indisposed to sober calculation; he also becomes self-assertive, arrogant, and boisterous; there exist a certain impulsiveness and impatience of control, and a distinct