200 THE PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY 



336. Until recently it was agreed on all hands that South 

 Europeans, notwithstanding the possession of a more abund- 

 ant supply of alcohol, were more temperate than North 

 Europeans, and North Europeans than most savages. But 

 since I first attributed racial sobriety to evolution, 1 some 

 authorities have made the surprising discovery that South 

 Europeans are the most drunken people on earth. It seems 

 that the consumption of alcohol per capita is greater in the 

 south of Europe than in the north, and very much greater 

 than in Greenland, Terra del Fuego, Central Australia, or 

 amongst the Red Indians. But a high consumption per 

 capita does not necessarily indicate a high rate of drunken- 

 ness. Imagine two parties of twenty men each. Suppose 

 every man of the first party drank one glass of alcohol; 

 while, of the second party, one man drank nineteen glasses, 

 and the rest none at all. The consumption per capita of the 

 first party would be the higher, but most people would agree 

 that the amount of drunkenness in the second party would 

 be the greater. Red Indians, Englishmen, and Italians do 

 not drink after the same fashion. They do not seek the 

 same sensations nor feel the same emotions. Given a 

 sufficient supply of the concentrated solutions of alcohol 

 which civilized men have invented, Red Indians are soon 

 exterminated. They drink furiously, and are furious in 

 their drink. They become " fighting mad." Englishmen 

 possess considerable quantities of alcohol, but the con- 

 sumption of it is very unequally distributed. Comparatively 

 few women and children use it. Many men abstain. Many 

 more take it in great moderation. A large minority are 

 intemperate ; but among them the homicidal, the imme- 

 diately lethal form of drunkenness has become less common 

 than among Red Indians. They are more apt to be sleepy, 

 genial, or stupid. Moreover the homicidal form of drunken- 

 ness is least common among the higher classes, who have 

 been most thoroughly weeded out. In Italy almost every 

 man, woman, and child takes alcohol; but, though very 

 abundant and palatable, it is drunk almost exclusively to 

 gratify thirst or taste. Drunkenness is very rare. Formerly 

 it was the custom among the Italian peasantry to purchase 

 an hour's drinking in a tavern on payment of a very trifling 

 sum. A similar custom would result in the ruin of a land- 

 lord in England, and the murder of him and half his 

 customers in Dacota. The following extract, written by a 

 close and accurate medical observer resident in Italy, illus- 

 1 In 1896. See The Present Evolution of Men. 



