io6 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



But having reached its culmination, drunkenness 

 gradually diminished in Germany. To-day the 

 South Germans, especially in the vine-growing 

 districts, are as sober as the inhabitants of the 

 Mediterranean littoral. 



Great Britain has always been intemperate, and 

 has sought as often as Germany to cure the evil by 

 legislative action. In it, also, as drink gradually 

 cheapened and came more and more within the 

 reach of the people, drunkenness waxed at a corre- 

 sponding rate. The stringency of selection grew 

 sharper. The culminating point was reached early 

 in the eighteenth century, when tavern signs inti- 

 mated that customers could get drunk for a penny, 

 and dead drunk for twopence ; ^ and when gratuitous 

 accommodation, with clean straw to lie on, was 

 provided in the cellars for those who expended the 

 twopence.^ A term was set to this great national 

 orgie by Sir Joseph Jekyll's " Gin Act," which 

 became law in 1739. But already there had been 

 a vast elimination of the unfit. Not only did the 

 Gin Act render drink less accessible, but the number 

 of those who desired to be drunken had greatly 

 diminished. Since then the severity of legislation 

 has not much, if at all, increased, but the improve- 

 ment, begun nearly two hundred years ago, has 



' Callowitz, quoted by Samuelson, " History of Drink," p. 113. 

 ' Op. cit., p. 161. 



