CHAPTER II 



Dr. Ridge's statistics place beyond ciuestion the fact 

 that alcohol is a considerable cause of mortality. But 

 his figures, however significant, are by no means signifi- 

 cant enough. Alcohol not only causes disease and 

 death among the bread-winners of the community, to 

 whom his statistics chiefly refer ; it is also a cause of 

 destitution to their families, and therefore a factor in 

 the elimination of those who, inheriting the inborn 

 traits of their progenitors, would in the next generation 

 indulge in it to excess. Every shilling spent on drink 

 is a shilling less for food, clothing, shelter, and the 

 provision of better sanitation. Moreover, apart from 

 the question of disease and death, individuals who 

 indulsfe in alcohol to excess, i. e. to such an extent as to 

 leave them appreciably poorer, or to such an extent as 

 to damage their health, must on the whole have fewer 

 offspring than those who do not so indulge, for the 

 reason that they are less able to support wives and 

 families, and because men and women are generally 

 unwilling to marry the intemperate. 



In generation after generation alcohol is therefore 



the cause of a considerable elimination of the unfit in 



relation to it, and therefore, like a very prevalent and 



deadly disease, in generation after generation it must be 



the cause of a considerable evolution asjainst itself This 



evolution may be in one or both of two directions ; it may 



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