NARCOTICS 199 



susceptibility to the charm of alcohol, to suppose that the 

 huge mortality that is caused by it is an affair of pure 

 chance, to suppose that the inborn predilections of individuals 

 have no part in distributing the mortality. Doubtless chance 

 does play a considerable part ; many men are unable to pro- 

 cure as much alcohol as they desire ; others are exposed to 

 exceptionally good or bad influences. The ordinary coster- 

 monger is less likely to exercise self-restraint than a man 

 reared in the normal environment of a clergyman. But all 

 this only proves that alcohol as a selective agent is more 

 stringent under some conditions than under others. Under 

 every condition it is still an agent of selection. We are driven 

 thence to the expectation that it is a cause of evolution. It 

 follows, since only those individuals are eliminated by alcohol 

 who enjoy the intoxicating effects of it, we should expect to 

 find those races least inclined to excessive indulgence which 

 have been longest and most severely afflicted. This, as a fact, 

 is exactly what we do find. It is an absolute rule to which 

 there is no exception, that, given an abundant supply of 

 alcohol, every race is temperate strictly in proportion to its 

 past experience of the poison. When our deductions are 

 confirmed so conclusively by an appeal to facts they can no 

 longer be regarded as mere hypotheses. They become 

 certainties. 



335. The facts concerning opium are very similar. That 

 narcotic has been used extensively in India for several 

 centuries. It was introduced by the English into China 

 about two centuries ago. Quite recently the Chinese have 

 taken it to Burma, to various Polynesian islands, and to 

 Australia. There is no evidence that the use of opium has 

 caused any race to deteriorate. Indeed it happens that 

 the finest races in India are the most addicted to its use. 

 According to the evidence given before the late Royal Com- 

 mission on Opium, the natives of India never or very rarely 

 take it to excess. When first introduced into China it was 

 the cause of a large mortality ; but to-day most Chinamen, 

 especially in the littoral provinces, take it in great modera- 

 tion. On the other hand, Burmans, Polynesians, and 

 Australian natives take opium in such excess and perish 

 of it in such numbers that their European governors are 

 obliged to forbid the drug to them, though the use of it is 

 permitted to foreign immigrants to their countries. In 

 exactly the same way alcohol is forbidden to Australasians 

 and Red Indians in places where it is permitted to white 

 men. 



