Helping Hands

IS ALCOHOLISM INHERITED? Do the children of alcoholics inherit a craving for alcohol? Does the use of alcohol damage the sperm or ovum and thus cause the progeny to deteriorate and degenerate? The first question is important because it concerns the stock of the human race. The second is important because it concerns the origin and development of alcoholism and therefore its control, says Leon Greenberg, Director of Yale's Laboratory of Applied Biodynamics in "Inventory." Summing up his conclusions, Dr. Greenberg writes: (1) The use of alcohol does not injure the human germ and cause abnormalities in heredity; (2) The greater incidence of disease and mortality among children whose parents are abnormal drinkers. . .is due to the low standards of living and neglect in the homes of excessive drinkers; (3) Excessive users of alcohol frequently come from families of poor hereditary stock; (4) The defects they inherit are not alcoholism nor are they caused by alcohol, but they may predispose to alcoholism. . . .