igo NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 



takes a similar line of argument : that those races which have the 

 most experience of alcohol are best able to resist it ; — he regards this 

 as due to elimination of the unfit. He gives statistics to show that 

 abstainers live longer than non-abstainers ; but they prove nothing ; 

 they certainly do not show that thereby abstainers become more 

 numerous. Let us take a case : there are women who abstain from 

 childbirth, others who do not abstain. It is certain that the abstainers 

 live the longer, because the risks of childbirth are many, and result 

 in the loss of many lives. Therefore, in course of time, by the 

 elimination of non-abstainers, only abstainers should be left. It is a 

 rediictio ad ahsurdum ; but it signifies that tables of comparative longevity 

 do not affect the matter, unless it can also be shown that those who 

 live longest produce most children. This does not follow in the least ; 

 and again it is highly probable that non- abstainers are more productive 

 than abstainers. We have evidence on this point. " Total abstinence 

 is more practised by the steadiest men m other respects, though it is 

 also true that the fact of abstaining assists in promoting continence." 

 (p. 322). On the other hand, alcohol certainly stimulates the sexual 

 instinct. Agricultural labourers indulge very largely in drink ; and at 

 the same time, they have very considerable families. 



Anyone who has paid attention to the population question, who 

 knows the early marriage-rate of farm servants, and their large 

 families, has necessarily come to the conclusion that they produce 

 far more than their share of the next generation. This means that 

 the professional classes must be largely recruited from time to time 

 from those whose forbears were farm servants a few generations ago ; 

 and we know that such is a fact. We have no data in this country 

 to show what does happen ; but Karl Pearson has proved that in 

 Copenhagen the artisan class beats the professional, and that " the 

 population would appear to be ultimately reproducing itself from the 

 artisan class" (Nat. Sci., vol. viii. No. 51, p. 325, May, 1896). In this 

 couAtry the surplus from the farm-labouring class of each genera- 

 tion joins the artisans. Professor Pearson's statement thus confirms 

 our surmise, and it really means that the greater bulk of our popu- 

 lation is being reproduced by those classes who indulge the most in 

 alcohol. The temperate middle and professional class is known to 

 marry latest of all, and it is by no means prolific. Such considera- 

 tions cut the ground away from many of Mr. Reid's arguments con- 

 cerning man's evolution in respect of alcohol. 



It is strange that a work entitled " The Present Evolution ot 

 Man " should take no account of the reproduction question. For 

 instance, there is at the present day a sudden decrease in the birth- 

 rate — stated recently for London as 15 per cent, below the decennial 

 average, which itself has been growing less. This implies that the 

 population is less by hundreds of thousands, and it undoubtedly 

 corresponds with the rapidly-spreading knowledge of chemical means 

 for checking fecundation. However beneficial a small family may be 



