It acts in all the three ways in which I
indicated that ante-natal causes can be shown to act in relation to
the increase of infantile mortality, viz.,.by causing abortions.,
by predisposing to premature labours, and by weakening the infant
by disease or deformity so that it more readily succumbs to
ordinary morbid influences at and after birth. By causing diseases
of the kidneys and of the placenta it also leads to that failure of
the filter to which I have already referred; the placenta being
damaged, not only does the alcohol more readily pass through it
itself, but it is also possible for other poisons, germs, and
toxins to cross over into the fatal economy. So it comes about that
the most disastrous consequences are entailed upon the unborn
infant in connection with syphilis, lead-poisoning, fevers, and
the like in the intemperate mother."
The foregoing was written as long ago as 1906, and various workers have
helped to confirm it since that date.
We must further learn that alcohol taken by the mother who nurses her
child has an organic relation to the child after birth. It is true,
indeed, that according to a celebrated observer, Professor von Bunge,
the influence of alcoholism in preceding generations is such that the
daughters of such a stock are mostly unable to nurse their children. It
is not quite certain that Professor von Bunge has proved his case, but
it is definitely proved that even if alcoholism in the maternal
grandparent has not altogether prevented a child from being fed in the
natural fashion, it may yet suffer gravely in consequence of receiving
alcohol in its mother's milk.
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