288 ALCOHOL 



delirium, and the like, which indicate temporary or permanent 

 impairment of health. In some cases, especially with habitual 

 drinkers, these disagreeable sensations are temporarily alleviated 

 by further indulgence in alcohol, the drinker taking " a hair of 

 the dog that bit him." Doubtless the fact that drinking often 

 affords temporary relief from the after effects of previous indulgence 

 conduces to continued indulgence. Some writers seem to hold 

 a belief that it is the sole cause of all excessive drinking, at any 

 rate of all excessive drinking that is of importance. Obviously, 

 however, they are mistaken. A week's incarceration in prison, which 

 may remove every unpleasant sensation, will seldom cure a 

 habitual drinker. Sailors, who start on a long voyage in miserable 

 case but return perfectly cured, are as prone as any class to deep 

 indulgence. Years ago I lived in New Zealand with bushmen and 

 " gum diggers." Alcohol was not obtainable in the neighbourhood. 

 Some of my companions, men in splendid health and vigour, 

 dreamed, as of heavenly delights, of the week or fortnight of 

 furious drinking in which they were wont to dissipate the earnings 

 of months. Clearly, then, the craving for drink is not always due 

 to a longing to counteract the ill-effects of previous indulgence, but 

 to a recollection of its delights. The relief which continued 

 drinking affords is a contributory cause, but never, of course, the 

 primary cause. 1 



480. The craving for alcohol is a resultant of two factors. The 

 first is an inborn (nutritional) capacity to enjoy or develop a power 

 of enjoying the sensations that alcohol awakens. The second is a 

 recollection of the sensations aroused by previous acts of drinking. 

 No one could possibly crave for indulgence in alcohol unless he 

 were so constituted as to enjoy the effect any more than he could 

 crave for a draught of sea-water. On the other hand, no one is born 

 with a knowledge of the sensations aroused by drinking, therefore 

 none can crave for them without a recollection of previous experi- 

 ence. It is true that a man who has heard of the delights of 

 drinking may desire alcohol in the sense that a boy desires tobacco, 

 or an Englishman some tropical fruit ; but this desire is quite 

 distinct from that which besets the experienced toper. Both these 

 desires, again, are distinct in type from hunger, or thirst, or the 



1 This discussion, with much else in the present chapter, may appear childish 

 to the reader an attempt to prove the obvious. But it must be borne in mind 

 that we are now dealing with a subject about which an incredible amount of 

 nonsense has been written and accepted. It is necessary, therefore, to demon- 

 strate even the very obvious. 



