Of the proportion of mentally defective inebriates (62.6 per cent. of the whole) mentioned by Dr. Branthwaite, _all_ are “practically hopeless from a reformation standpoint.” This is a sufficient comment, if any were needed, upon repeated imprisonment for habitual drunkenness--which, as Dr. Branthwaite says, “is indefensible and inhumane.” He adds in closing that, in his judgment, habitual drunkenness, so far as women are concerned, has materially increased, during the last twenty-five years, “which I have spent entirely amongst drunkards and drunkenness.” The unfortunate people whom he studies “_are not in the least affected by orthodox temperance efforts; they continue to propagate drunkenness, and thereby nullify the good results of temperance energy. Their children, born of defective parents, and educated by their surroundings, grow up without a chance of decent life, and constitute the reserve from which the strength of our present army of habituals is maintained. Truly we have neglected in the past, and are still neglecting, the main source of drunkard supply--the drunkard himself; cripple that, and we should soon see some good result from our work._” A foremost authority, Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., has independently reached the same conclusion as Dr. Branthwaite--that the chronic inebriate comes as a rule of an inherently tainted stock. (Dr. Mott, however, reminds us that “if alcohol is a weed killer, preventing the perpetuation of poor types, it is probably even more effective as a weed producer.”) Professor David Ferrier, F.R.S., the great pioneer of brain localisation, in reference to these people, speaks of “the risk of propagation of a race of drunkards and imbeciles.” Dr. J. C. Dunlop, H.M. Inspector under the Inebriates Act, Scotland, states that his experience leads him to precisely the same conclusion as that of Dr. Branthwaite. Dr. A. R. Urquhart, an asylum authority, affirms that chronic inebriety “is largely an affair of heredity ... is a symptom of mental defect, disorder, or disease.” Dr. Fleck, another authority, says: “It is my strong conviction that a large percentage of our mentally defective children, including idiots, imbeciles and epileptics, are the descendants of drunkards.” Mr. McAdam Eccles, the distinguished surgeon, agrees; so does Dr. Langdon Down, Physician to the National Association for the Welfare of the Feeble-minded; so does Mr. Thomas Holmes, the Secretary of the Howard Association, who remarks that “our habitual criminals, equally with our mental inebriates, are not responsible beings, but victims of mental disease.” Finally Miss Kirby, Secretary of the National Association for the Feeble-minded, insists upon the obvious conclusion that these people must be detained permanently. She says, “When one case of a dissolute feeble-minded woman in America is quoted as the mother of nine feeble-minded children, we see the cause why inebriate homes, and also reformatories,