146 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



partial successes. We have glanced at the past 

 history of temperance legislation. It will be even 

 more instructive to examine its present position. 



Messrs Rowntree and Sherwell have lately pub- 

 lished a massive and very admirable volume dealing 

 with the temperance efforts of modern times.^ The 

 aim of the work is, by comparing the effects of the 

 various methods of Temperance Reform, to discover 

 the best method, or the methods which are best 

 under different circumstances. No one reading it 

 can fail to be impressed with the ability and 

 earnestness of the authors, their monumental in- 

 dustry, and their absolute fairness. They are 

 temperance reformers of the ordinary school. Yet 

 no more damning evidence of the methods they 

 advocate was ever penned. 



The principal modern attempts at temperance 

 have been made in North America. The conditions 

 there are especially favourable. The population is 

 comparatively scanty. Isolation from other peoples 

 is more complete than is the case with any other 

 civilised race. Religious sentiment is very strong 

 and has helped to create the zeal for reform. Total 

 Prohibition is now the law in five States of the 

 American Union.^ It has been tried and abandoned 

 in ten.' When the prohibitory laws were passed 



' "The Temperance Problem and Social Reform," by Joseph 

 Rowntree and Arthur Sherwell. London : Redder & Stoughton. 

 2 Op. cit., p. 119. ^ Op. cit., p. 120. 



