Alcoholic Heredity 
* 
DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 
By T. D. CROTHERS, M.D., 
SuperintendenTTirAAraTr^^ 
Hartford, Conn. 
[Reprinted from the Journal of Inebriety for July, 1890.] ALCOHOLIC HEREDITY IN DISEASES OF 
CHILDREN.* 
T. D. Crothers, M.D. 
A. B. came under my care for home treatment for periodic 
inebriety. He has used wine on the table at meals for 
twenty years ; for ten years past he had drank in parox- 
ysms. His wife used wine on the table also, and during preg- 
nancy and lactation had used both beer and wine freely. He 
had two children, one a girl of eight years, the other a boy 
five years old, both invalids, and had been under constant 
medical care from infancy, the general diagnosis being scrof- 
ula and general anaemia; and both were of pale and delicate 
appearance, extremely excitable and nervous. 
They had continuous irritation of the stomach, from an 
unrestricted diet of all kinds of foods and drinks, except wine 
and beer ; were very passionate at the slightest opposition to 
their wishes, and after a period of rage would be greatly ex- 
hausted and have a distinct fever for a day or more. The 
girl had attacks of emotional religiosity, in which she mani- 
fested great sorrow and melancholy at her sins, and asked the 
prayers of all persons she came in contact with ; at other 
times she was precociously bright, and irritable at any opposi- 
tion to her wishes. 
The family physician had no faith in heredity, and treated 
these various conditions as so many symptoms of threatened 
organic disorders which his skill and remedies prevented 
from gaining farther. Both had suffered from rubeola and 
scarlatina, and were supposed to have never fully recovered. 
Bronchitis, enteritis, gastritis, neuritis, and various heart dis- 
eases, were constantly threatening, and as constantly averted. 
Finally, death of the physician brought a new man who recog- 
nized the alcoholic heredity of these cases, and ordered them 
to the country where the diet was restricted, and enforced 
* Read before the Section of Diseases of Children of the American Medical 
Association at Nashville meeting. 4 
exercise outdoors, and frequent bathing when it could be 
carried out. 
These children had marked nerve and brain instability, 
with low vitality, and were neurotics, which would of neces- 
sity develop insanity, inebriety, or any other form of nerve 
and brain degeneration ; and the rational treatment should 
have recognized this condition, and given special attention 
to the diet and surroundings, and the avoidance of all existing 
causes that would stimulate the brain and nervous system. 
A physician wrote me that he had given tincture cinchona 
to a neurotic child of one year of age, for slight fever which 
resembled malaria. In a short time the child would cry for 
the medicine, and only would be satisfied for a little time 
after it was given; on one occasion it took at once a two- 
ounce mixture of this drug. He changed to other tonics, 
but found that nothing would satisfy the child but tinctures. 
The child was found to have an alcoholic mother, who died 
soon after its birth, and the alcohol in the tinctures aroused 
an organic memory which had been inherited. 
In private practice, some years ago, I treated a little boy for 
over five years, for the most confusing and varied disorders 
and diseases that it was possible to have ; he recovered from 
one disorder only to be prostrated with another. None of 
them were well defined or clear, and much difference of opin- 
ion prevailed among the numerous medical men who were 
called in consultation. At puberty this boy became a pro- 
nounced dipsomaniac, suddenly, and without any special 
temptation. Years after he came under my care, and was a 
chronic case. From a study of his history it was ascertained 
that his father was an inebriate, and died before he was born. 
Here was an alcoholic heredity, which had escaped notice, 
and where the alcoholic neurotic symptoms were not under- 
stood. 
I think we may confidently expect of the practice of med- 
icine, that in the near future such cases will be treated so 
successfully that the alcoholic or insane predisposition will 
be warded off. I have heard of numerous instances of child- 5 
ren from infancy upward to puberty, upon which alcohol in 
any form and in small quantities acted as a hypnotic; in 
some cases no other medicine could be tolerated, and in some 
alcoholic heredity was present, in others it was not clear. 
In the study of the early history of inebriates, a great 
variety of diseases common to childhood appear,- and seem to 
have been more intense than in other children. Such cases 
seem to have suffered more severely than others from nutrient 
disorders, shocks, and traumatism ; they are freighted with 
some heredity or predisposition to particular forms of degen- 
eration ; the organism has received a certain bias, from which 
it cannot escape. Alcohol, of all other drugs, seems most 
potent to impress cell growth and function. 
No fact is more firmly established than that alcoholic an- 
cestors will transmit to their children a defective brain and 
nerve power. The form and shape of this defect and its 
manifestations will vary widely. 
In many cases it may not be prominent until after the 
higher peripheral brain has reached a certain development, 
especially in the growth of the emotional and inhibitory 
centers. In others this defect is seen in infancy, in an ab- 
normal hyperaesthesia of the senses, and nutrient disturbances. 
Some children manifest irritation at all sounds, and all 
changes of light and surroundings, by continuous crying; 
the skin or alimentary canal is also very sensitive, and vari- 
ous skin disorders and nutrient troubles follow. Low powers 
of vitality and slow, irregular growth are common. This con- 
dition may continue for years, then gradually disappear, and 
only re appear at puberty, or later, in some distinct form of 
degeneration. Sometimes a marked neurasthenia and anae- 
mia appear in early life and continue up to puberty, then 
break out into some disease, or develop some hereditary 
malady. 
Another class of children are noted, who come from alco- 
holic ancestors, by their precocious development of brain and 
nerve force. They exhibit powers of brain receptivity and 
instability that is called genius, which give way early to some 6 
disease or form of nerve degeneration from various causes. 
Inebriety, insanity, or both, are very common sequels. Al- 
cohol or opium.in any form is almost always a grateful rem- 
edy, and is demanded in many instances by the patient. The 
use of bitters that contain large quantities of spirits is also 
very popular, and an unconscious organic memory is awakened 
that rarely dies out. 
In some children this craving for spirits is manifest very 
early. A case of this kind was brought to my notice by Dr. 
Smith of New York, where an infant of two months old could 
only be quieted by a few drops of spirits. Its taste was so 
pronounced that it would stop nursing at the sight of the 
person who gave the spirits, and cry until it was gratified. 
Fortunately, such instances are not common ; but the abnor- 
mal tastes of children, and their extreme sensitiveness or ob- 
tuseness to sensory impressions, and low powers of vitality 
and recuperation, are often clear symptoms of an alcoholic 
impression from ancestors. 
This alcoholic heredity will be seen in children that mani- 
fest q^tremes of activity, particularly where there is a tend- 
ency to the sudden liberation of nerve energies, as in violent 
passion (grief or joy) or work, play, or study, which is followed 
by extreme prostration. The child is said to be sullen, mo- 
rose, or melancholy, then suddenly manifest the other ex- 
tremes, indicating a great instability of brain cells and func- 
tional control. Its life seems to be threatened with fevers, 
prostrations, and inanitions, accompanied with mental irrita- 
tions and wandering neuralgias that tax severely the skill of 
the physician. These conditions may follow other heredities, 
but they always point to a degree of nerve and brain degen- 
eration or retarded development, and defective co-ordination, 
that must be recognized in the treatment. 
In all cases where alcoholic ancestors, even back to the 
second generation, can be traced, there are certain predisposi- 
tions which must be considered in the treatment. 
First. A tendency to exhaustion from feeble vitality, 
and low power of restoration. Tonics and nutriments that 7 
have a direct stimulant action on the brain should not be 
used, such as alcohol and opium, and meat broths. These 
remedies have a tendency to* still further exhaust the vital 
forces, paralyzing the nerve centers and increasing the car- 
bonaceous matters of the system. 
Second. An instability of cell and nerve function, and 
strong predisposition to develop into some particular form of 
degeneration, which is practically an exhaustion of the higher 
brain centers with craving for relief. All stimulants and 
remedies which act on the brain centers increase the existing 
degeneration. 
Third. There is a special affinity for all nerve stimulants 
by those higher brain centers. Their use constantly inter- 
feres with the natural development of brain energy from 
■food. Thus alcohol, tea, coffee, and other substances have a 
peculiar delusive effect. 
From these facts it will be obvious that the diseases of 
children of alcoholic parentage are far more complex, and 
require greater care. In addition to whatever disease they 
suffer from, there is always neuraesthenia and defective con- 
trol of the brain centers, which may come into prominence 
at any moment, from causes both known and unknown. 
This hereditary bias and neurotic instability enters into all 
cases. 
The general principles which should govern in the treat- 
ment maybe grouped as follows : I. No form of alcohols are 
safe, and narcotics of all kinds should be used with great care. 
2. The diet should not include meats of any kind, because of 
their stimulating character; while meats contain much food 
force, they act as stimulants to a brain already over stimu- 
lated and exhausted, and increase the peril of nervous disease. 
The pathological tendency of all these cases is to become 
alcohol-takers and meat-eaters, hence the diet should always 
be non-stimulating and farinaceous, and should be carried out 
with military regularity. 3. The hygienic treatment is also 
of the greatest importance ; every means and measure which 
can build up a system, and avoid brain and nerve stimulation, 8 
is required. 4. Cases of this character should be guarded 
•against every possible extreme, both in the surroundings 
and physical conditions that are under the control of the 
physician. The tendency of all energy and nerve force is 
to pass off in explosions, which should be counteracted; 
the diseases they suffer from show this tendency to con- 
centrate and become intensified in certain directions, also 
to manifest distinct exacerbations. Finally, the fact of an 
alcoholic heredity in disease of children that we are called 
upon to treat, gives a wider therapeutical range of possi- 
bilities, both in direct and preventive medicine. 
Recent studies of alcohol cases show that over seventy 
per cent, are directly inherited. If this is confirmed by later 
studies, the treatment of inebriety will in the future begin in 
infancy, and the higher science and art of medicine will win 
its greatest triumphs along the line of prevention.