362 THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 



It is clear then that those races of India which vise 

 opium are very highly resistant to it. As regards 

 China, while competent witnesses frequently declared 

 that the accounts given by missionaries of its evil 

 effects are exaggerated, it is significant that none of 

 them appear to have declared, as so many did of India, 

 that opium-smoking is totally unattended by harm. 



Sir Thomas Wade said — 



" No man who has lived the time I have in China, 

 and Avho has been in contact with Chinese of all kinds, 

 can deny that the excessive use of opium in that country 

 is an exceeding misfortune to that country, and I myself 

 have stated that proposition, perhaps more positively 

 years ago than I should be prepared to do at this moment. 

 That is to say, that without at all pretending to abate 

 the statement that many people — many thousands of 

 people — do suffer from the excessive use of opium, it is 

 to a great number of people precisely what the use of 

 alcoholic stimulants to the people in our country, taken 

 moderately, is ; that is to say, that it will cheer the 

 workman just as our workman is cheered by his glass 

 of heer."— Ibid. p. 87. 



In an article quoted before the Commission Dr. Ayres 

 wrote — 



" My opinion is, that it (opium-smoking) may become 

 a habit, but that the habit is not necessarily an increas- 

 ing one. Nine out of twelve men smoke a certain 

 number of pipes a day, just as a tobacco-smoker would, 

 or as a wine or beer-drinker might drink his two or 

 three glasses a day, without desiring more. I think 

 the excessive opium-smoker is in a greater minority 

 than the excessive spirit-drinker or tobacco-smoker. 

 In my experience, the habit does no physical harm in 

 moderation. ... I do not wish to defend the practice 

 of opium-smoking, but in the face of the rash opinions 



