INDUSTRIAL DRINKING 317 



of the drunkard " is not in the last analysis " a simple inborn 

 trait," then, in the name of clear thinking, what is it ? Even 

 if we suppose it to be an acquirement, we must in the last analysis, 

 as in the case of other acquirements, postulate an inborn foundation 

 for it. Whether the inborn foundation is simple or compound is 

 irrelevant. The word ' simple ' has not to my knowledge been used 

 by any adherent of the theory. Possibly we are all potential 

 drunkards in the sense that, under very exceptional circumstances, 

 we are all capable of acquiring a liking for intoxication ; but it 

 is beyond doubt that some of us are so constituted that we become 

 drunkards more readily than others. This liability to acquire 

 a liking for intoxication is the diathesis, the inborn trait, the 

 susceptibility. If the writer from whom we quote means to imply 

 nothing more than that the diathesis is not the only factor in the 

 causation of inebriety, then his language implies also that some 

 one has stated that it is. But, in point of fact, no one has been 

 so excessively foolish. The influence of education, fashion, self- 

 restraint, accessibility of alcohol, and the like have all been fully 

 admitted. For example, it has been admitted that abstainers, 

 who will not drink, and Fuegians who cannot procure drink, may 

 have the diathesis strongly developed and yet not be drunken. 

 It has been held only that the craving for drink is the resul- 

 tant not of one factor, but of two, inborn susceptibility and 

 previous experience, and that the greater the susceptibility the 

 more easily does the experience awaken the craving. Yet again, 

 no one has so much as hinted that alcoholic evolution would 

 lead to a race ' immune to drink ' in the sense implied. Evolution 

 is never perfect. It has been maintained merely that evolution 

 tends so to decrease the susceptibility of a race exposed to 

 selection that it becomes increasingly temperate, even in the 

 presence of increasing supplies of alcohol. 



535. During the Middle Ages the belief was prevalent that 

 alcohol presumably in moderation was beneficial to health 

 and strength. Rightly or wrongly wrongly, I think, except in 

 certain cases of depressed health this belief has survived to the 

 present day, particularly amongst medical men and nursing 

 mothers. I suppose, however, that no human being who has 

 an average experience of life, and is not a real lunatic, believes 

 that alcohol taken in excess is beneficial. By excess I mean here 

 an amount which obviously impairs health and efficiency. Certainly 

 no sane excessive drinker, however ignorant, no man who has 

 experienced the resulting temporary paralysis, indigestion, loss of 



