THE PRESEXT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 357 



man. If, then, opium has been a cause of evolution, 

 certain peoples of India — c. g. the Sikhs and Bajputs — 

 who have longest used it should be the most resistant to 

 it — that is, should crave least for excessive indulgence in 

 it; the Chinese should be less resistant, should crave 

 more for it : whereas the Burmese should be least re- 

 sistant, should crave most for it. 



This is exactly what we find to be the actual case. 

 Numerous witnesses, men scientifically trained, who had 

 had the best possible opportunities for observation, 

 declared before the late " Eoyal Commission on Opium " 

 that they had never or rarely known opium productive 

 of harm among the peoples of India. On the other 

 hand, numerous witnesses, chiefly missionaries or others 

 connected with different religious bodies, asserted that 

 everywhere in India it was productive of great harm. 

 But as regards this conflict of evidence, I do not think 

 that I overstate the case when I say, that in a question 

 of this sort the evidence of one expert should outweigh 

 that of a dozen enthusiasts, especially when to the cause 

 for which the latter are contending they apply the word 

 " sacred," and I am encouraged in this view when I 

 remember how strangely discrepant may be two ver- 

 sions of the same event given by different and opposed 

 bodies of enthusiasts ; for instance, the narrative of this 

 or that event in Central Africa as severally related by 

 Protestant and Catholic missionaries when acting in 

 opposition. Moreover, even by the missionaries, opium 

 is said to be injurious chiefly from a •' moral " point of 

 view. It is said by them to mentally affect the natives 

 of India and China much as alcohol is said by people of 

 the same type to affect the natives of England. 



" The moral effect on the heathen seems to be to rob 

 them of all that little moral sense they seem naturally to 

 have ; and it turns them into thieves, liars, fornicators, 



