114 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



Europe. In most cases their aboriginal inhabitants 

 are among the most drunken peoples on earth — for 

 example, the various Indian tribes inhabiting the 

 Southern States of the American Union, the 

 aborigines of a similar zone in South America, 

 the aborigines of South Australia, Tasmania, New 

 Zealand, and many islands of the Pacific. A yet 

 wider view makes manifest the fact that no climate 

 is more conducive than any other to sobriety. 

 Dry heat does not render temperate the Australian 

 Blacks, nor moist heat the natives of South 

 America. Arctic rigors do not conduce to so- 

 briety among the Esquimaux and Tierra del 

 Fuegians. A happy mean did not save the 

 Tasmanians, the Caribs, and the Red Indians. 

 Jews and South Europeans are temperate in all 

 regions of the earth in which they travel or 

 settle. North Europeans are much more intem- 

 perate under similar conditions. 



Different races consume alcohol in different 

 forms. Some beverages are more potent than 

 others. The varying degrees of racial insobriety 

 have been attributed to the varying strengths of 

 the beverages consumed by the different races. 

 It has been thought that the use of the stronger 

 beverages is more conducive to intemperance than 

 the use of the weaker. No doubt it is somewhat 

 more easy to get drunk on spirits, for instance, 



