THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 335 



Europeans. Indeed it is probable in England, for ex- 

 ample, where so much misery is caused by alcohol, 

 where public opinion is so much against excessive in- 

 dulgence in it, and where the cost of indulgence is 

 ruinously high, that the traits acquired by the inhabit- 

 ants are such as tend much more to counteract alcoholic 

 craving than the traits acquired by the inhabitants of 

 Italy and Greece, where little misery is caused, where 

 public opinion is much less powerful, and where indulg- 

 ence is much less costly. We must conclude, therefore, 

 that the inhabitants of Southern Europe are more 

 abstemious than those of Northern Europe, a fortiori, 

 than savages, not because the craving for alcohol is in 

 them more counteracted by the influence of precept 

 and example, or because it is more stimulated by pre- 

 cept and example among the North Europeans and 

 savages, but solely because among them the craving 

 is weaker, or practically non-existent. 



It is said that racial differences with respect to the 

 craving for alcohol result from differences in the strength, 

 &c. of the alcoholic beverages in common use in various 

 countries ; for instance, it is said that the English are 

 more drunken than the Italians, because the spirits and 

 fortified wines they drink are stronger than the light 

 "natural" wines drunk in Italy ; but this hypothesis is 

 evidently founded on a confusion of cause and effect. It 

 is evidently not true that the English are more inclined 

 to drunkenness than the Italians, because their alcohol 

 is less dilute ; but, on the other hand, it is evidently true 

 that because the English are more inclined to drunken- 

 ness than the Italians they prefer their alcohol of greater 

 strength. The British Army of invasion during the 

 Peninsular War was exceedingly drunken on the wines 

 of the country, in the presence of which the Spanish 

 Army remained abstemious ; on the other hand, various 

 savage races, such as the natives of Guiana, with their 



