Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/478

464 the agents of others, and accept and carry out the plans arranged for them, either tacitly as by power of compulsion of an idea, or desire to please another; secondly, the act is the materialization of a delusion which has existed before and has been stimulated into activity by the use of spirits. In the first case some hypnotic state, in which an idea becomes dominant, exists. But this is very unstable, and while it may be increased by alcohol, is uncertain in duration, and liable to change any moment. Thus in a case where a man who, after using spirits, developed delusions of suspicion that his partner was robbing him, this was increased by giving him more spirits and reiterating the idea, and suggesting criminal revenge. It was noticed that there was a certain brief period when he might execute a criminal act, but before and after it was very doubtful. The brain could not be depended upon: it might act in an entirely different way and from a different motive apparently. Alcohol clearly predisposes to criminality by lowering and paralyzing the higher brain centers which preside over consciousness of right and wrong. The immediate effect of spirits is to cause impulsive, petty acts. For the present moment such acts might materialize into serious crime, but it would depend upon favorable conditions and surroundings. The unstable condition of the brain made so by alcohol, is more or less incapable of sustaining a preconceived idea and carrying it out, especially if time and continuous drinking follow. This is the rule to which there are exceptions, but these exceptions clearly follow certain circumstances which are easily traced. Often it is claimed that spirits are given for the purpose of obtaining undue influence in the making of a will or signing a contract. This is confirmed by a clinical study of cases, and facts indicate the impulsiveness of the act, with absence of deliberation or forethought. Delusions and misconceptions of acts and motives are very common in all inebriates. Faulty reasoning, childish credulity, and general failure of capacity to discriminate and adjust himself to the conditions and surroundings, must of necessity result in wrongdoing; although in many cases this condition is covered up, and only when the person acts along unusual lines is it apparent.

All contracts and wills written by inebriates should be subjected to careful scrutiny. Not infrequently such acts display sound judgment, and it is found that they are the culmination of previous conceptions. Where they manifest imbecility and strange motives, it is clearly the workings of an anæsthetic brain, acting from suggestions from without or deranged impulses formed within. While a very large number of inebriates act rationally in ordinary affairs of society and business, and do not commit overt acts that come under legal recognition, it is a question if