MENTAL EVOLUTION 



CHAPTER I 



In a former page, when endeavouring to ascertain 

 the direction of man's present evohition, it was re- 

 marked — " If we would discover in what direction the 

 evokition of an evolving species is proceeding, it is a 

 good plan to note which members of it survive and 

 which perish. We shall then, by observing the differ- 

 ence in qualities between the fit and the unfit, be able 

 to discover what traits favour survival, and therefore 

 what traits are undergoing evolution." We then came 

 to the conclusion, that since men perished mainly of 

 disease, Man's Present Evolution must be mainly 

 against disease. But beside disease there are in various 

 countries certain other agencies, which are the cause of 

 a great elimination of the unfit, either directly, or more 

 often indirectly, by producing deadly disease or con- 

 siderable incapacity, and which are therefore causes 

 of evolution wherever they are present. Such are 

 various narcotics, the use of one or other of which is 

 prevalent over by far the greater part of the globe, and 

 with which the unfit are poisoned, and with more or 

 less rapidity destroyed — alcohol, opium, hashish, &c. 



Alcohol. — It cannot be questioned that alcohol is a 

 poison, and the cause of many deaths. Opinions are 

 divided as to whether it is ever beneficial, and there- 

 fore a cause of survival, but certainly there can be no 



307 



