3H THE EVOLUTION AGAINST NARCOTICS 



suffering, and for two or three thousands of years have been 

 suffering, are supposed to be proportionately less aware of the 

 dreadful results of intemperance, and on that account to be more 

 drunken. The existence of a temperance propaganda and of 

 prohibitory laws amongst North Europeans and their colonists, 

 and the absence of them amongst South Europeans, is a fit com- 

 mentary on this shocking nonsense. 



527. Convivial and industrial drinking are terms which have 

 been applied to indulgence occurring during leisure and work time 

 respectively. Other things equal, men drink, smoke, play cricket, 

 or indulge themselves in any other way in proportion to their 

 desires. One of the " other things " is opportunity for indulgence, 

 which varies with time, place, and occupation. Thus I have two 

 occupations, medicine and authorship. I smoke a great deal when 

 I am writing, but not at all when I am attending to sick people. 

 So also a judge or preacher smokes less during the performance of 

 his duties than the average gardener. A coal-miner is forbidden 

 under the severest penalties to smoke or drink during his working 

 hours. He is even searched before descending into the pit. A 

 coal-porter on the other hand, is restrained from immoderate 

 indulgence in alcohol only by expense and the fear of the police. 

 It does not require a very high degree of intelligence to conclude 

 that, other things equal (e.g. a desire for alcohol), the average 

 porter will consume more during his working hours than the 

 average judge or miner. Again, some occupations demand delicate 

 manipulative skill, others nothing more than violent muscular 

 effort. The imbibition of a quantity of alcohol which interferes 

 little, if at all, with the latter, spells inefficiency in the case of the 

 former. For example, a watchmaker or engraver will become 

 incapable on smaller quantities of alcohol than a dock-labourer or 

 market-porter. As a consequence, others things equal, skilled 

 workers tend if only by the dropping out of the incapables to 

 be more temperate than rough labourers. 



528. In two kinds of occupation, then, is excessive drinking 

 during working hours comparatively rare those in which drink 

 is more or less inaccessible to the workman, and those in which 

 it quickly renders him inefficient. Speaking practically, all 

 * industrial ' drinkers are * convivial ' drinkers also. So that in 

 effect the former imbibe all day long, whereas the pure convivial 

 drinker, who is also a worker, imbibes only in the evening. Doubt- 

 less it often happens that the man who has been half drunk 

 previously becomes wholly drunk when his work is finished and he 



