OPIUM 133 



them into thieves, liars, fornicators, and it seems to 

 turn them into everything that is bad. I speak 

 now especially of the heathen." ^ 



But even if it be proved that opium has the alleged 

 disastrous effect on the morals of the heathen, yet, 

 since the possession of a high moral tone does not 

 appreciably affect the survival rate, this aspect of 

 the matter does not concern us here. It need only 

 be remarked that it is highly unlikely that opium, 

 any more than alcohol, does directly produce such 

 mental effects. Indirectly, through loss of inde- 

 pendence, self-respect, etc., it certainly may do so. 



On the other hand, some of the scientific wit- 

 nesses seemed to have erred in the opposite 

 extreme by attributing to opium a role altogether 

 too innocent in India. It cannot be that it is 

 entirely harmless there, for, however resistant evolu- 

 tion may have rendered the mass of the people, 

 there must occur among them some cases of retro- 

 gression in relation to opium, just as some cases 

 of retrogression in relation to alcohol occur among 

 the South Europeans — cases, that is, of arrested de- 

 velopment, in which the individual in his develop- 

 ment does not recapitulate the whole of the life 

 history of the race,^ but halts at the stage reached by 

 a more or less remote ancestor. But the mere fact 



1 " First Report, Royal Commission on Opium," Rev. F. Brown, p. 50. 

 ' Vide Appendix E. 



