(for of course no one will deny that children of drunkards are frequently defective) is due solely to social and economic causes, or other causes in the environment: that the drunken parents, for instance, do not take adequate care of their children, and that this lack of care leads to the defects of the children.
The latter influence is doubtless one that is nearly always at work, but it is wholly outside the scope of the present inquiry, and we shall therefore ignore it, save as it may appear incidentally. Nor does it require emphasis here; for the disastrous social and economic effects of alcoholism are patent to every observer. We find it most convenient to concentrate our attention first on the second of the questions above enumerated: to ask whether there is any good evidence that the use of alcoholic beverages by men and women really does originate degeneracy in their offspring.
To get such evidence, one must seek an