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Show AGE LIMIT OF INEBRIETY. . If a man has not indulged In alco- hoi to excess before the age of 25, ho Is not likely to do so at all, wo are . told by an editorial writer in Ameri can Medicine (Philadelphia, January 27), who bases his conclusions on the investigations of Dr. Charles L. Dana. Inebriety, ho tells us, usually sets In before the age of 20, and few begin to drink to excess after arriving at 30. We read: f "Dana stated that no cases arise af ter 40 years of ago. There is a popular popu-lar Idea, no doubt, that numerous cases do arise after 40, but it is not at all unlikely that Investigation into their early histories will bring to light , a long series of occasional ovor-lndul- gence with some symptoms dating back to childhood. Dana evidently refers re-fers to real Inebriety in youth, and not to tho lapses which so many young ' men wrongly assume to bo a part of their education, nor does he assert that all youthful Inebriates aro incurable, incur-able, but merely that old cases began at an early ago. Wild oats must bo reaped in sorrow and pain, but they do not necessarily choke tho whole crop of good seed. These statistics are of such profound significance) that it is quite remarkable they havo elicited elicit-ed little comment and liavo not been made tho basis of practical measures for tho prevention of drunkenness." Tho cause of tho early incident of Inebriety Is not known, but tho writer writ-er believes that in all cases tho craving crav-ing has a diseased condition as a basis. If a nervously unstablo boy Is not sufficiently protected until ago can bring about greater stability, ho will be apt to yield to temptation. But the writer believes that there aro few persons so neurasthenic as to drift into drunkenness or vagabondage no matter what guards surround their childhood. If wo can keep a boy straight, then, until ho Is twonty years old, he is pretty safe, oven if he has a tendency to alcoholism. The ,,, author therefore believes that it is a good plan to pay boys to abstain from alcohol a "modern movement," as he calls it, which has a "firm scientific scien-tific basis." Ho says: "Every little while we learn of some boy who has been promised a certain sum upon his twenty-first or twenty-fifth birthday or even yearly the sole condition being abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, or both. Tho average boy will work for such a prize as a matter of' course, and It wllj tide him over tho period In which alcohol al-cohol does tho most harm. If it is really true that abstinence until 25 insures a life of sobriety, by all means let tho scheme bo extended to more boys until It becomes fashionable. Boys are sticklers for custom and will shun drink as soon as it becomes bad form. Happily It is a method which cannot possibly do harm even If It Is not based upon a true hypothesis and its possibilities of good seem so largo that it would bo criminal not to try it. Should tho early incidenco df nlco-hollsm nlco-hollsm really mean that It Is duo to a pathologic nervous instability and there is no reason to bellevo It to bo so caused except in the minority of cases then tho boy is apt to bo abnormal abnor-mal anyway, if not alcohollcally then In some other habit. Yet It Is reasonable, reason-able, to bellevo that' many of these cases, after a few years of right living liv-ing with good food, might become sufficiently suf-ficiently stablo to bo in no further danger, and then they could indulgo moderately or not, as they please. Perhaps, also, much of the dlscaso is duo to poor nourishment in infancy and childhood, so that thoro aro other things to be dono besides Inducing abstinence ab-stinence in youth. Thoro aro many causes to be discovered and eliminated eliminat-ed so that pledges and bribes aro only adjuvants alter all. Wo aro drifting In the right direction anyhow. any-how. Edward Eggleston says: 'It was estimated early In tho eighteenth century that about ono building in every ten In Philadelphia was used in some way for tho sale of rum,' and in Massachusetts Governor Belcher was afraid that the colony would 'bo deluged with splritous liquors.' Tho outlook is n&t so bad that wo need worry. We cannot permit naturo to evolve national sobriety by her old trick of killing off all tho drunkards, tho method explained by Dr. G. A. Itoid, in his book on alcoholism. It Is too expensive In valuablo lives prevention pre-vention Is tho new method In this day and generation." Literary Digest, i |