vi PRE PACE 



if the reader be impatient, and especially if he 

 have some slight acquaintance with modern 

 biological thought, it is possible to take both the 

 preliminary statement and the Appendix for granted, 

 and confine the reading to the last nine chapters 

 of the book. 



It must be admitted that the selected field of 

 thought is of great importance. It would be 

 impossible to over-estimate the issues which hang 

 upon latter - day human evolution — especially of 

 all that has resulted from disease and from the 

 use of narcotics. An attempt is made in this 

 volume to trace the causes of intemperance on 

 purely scientific lines, and to indicate a practical 

 remedy. It is probable that the scientific data 

 enunciated here, as well as the suggested remedy, 

 will be denounced in general terms. But the writer 

 challenges detailed criticism. If his opponents are 

 able to break but a single link of the long chain 

 of fact and argument, it will be sufficient. If, 

 however, they limit themselves to epithets, his 

 contention that " every scheme of temperance 

 reform, hitherto enunciated, which depends upon 



