There is a possibility, and even probability, that the defective nervous organization which predisposes to alcoholism would seek satisfaction in the use of some other sedative drug.

So complex are all the interrelations of the social system that it would be possible to regard alcohol as an agent useful in removing the defective, were it not for its long-enduring action and its effects on the descendants, procreation not being affected by its use.
Diseases of the nervous system are particularly apt to affect the offspring, and often the inherited condition repeats that of the parents.

This is due to the fact that most of the nervous diseases depend both upon intrinsic factors which consist in some defective condition of the nervous system representing a variation, and extrinsic factors due to environment or occupation which make the basal condition operative.

The definite relation between alcoholism and insanity is due to alcohol acting not as an intrinsic but an extrinsic factor, bringing into effectiveness the hereditary weakness of the nervous system.

The influence of heredity in producing insanity is variously estimated at from twenty-six per cent to sixty per cent of all cases.