172 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



I care not, then, if the above scheme be denounced 

 as hateful and immoral. All thinking persons will 

 admit that the alternative to it is vsrorse. But if I 

 be told that it is impracticable, I must admit that a 

 great objection is raised. Like all new proposals 

 it is sure to be vehemently condemned, for it deals 

 with procreation, the special fetish of our age and 

 country.^ 



' It may be argued that, if it be right to ehminate the weak against 

 alcohol, it must be right also to eliminate the weak against disease, 

 since sanitation against disease preserves the predisposed to disease ; 

 and therefore that every scheme for the promotion of sanitation 

 which depends on the diminution or extinction of the microbic 

 supply, is in effect a scheme for the ultimate promotion of disease. 

 But disease and drink stand on a totally different basis. No man 

 craves for disease, and, if we banished it, no man would strive to 

 bring it back ; but many men crave for drink, and, did we banish it, 

 increasing thousands would strive to bring it back. Moreover, a 

 human prey is essential to the microbes of such diseases as are non- 

 malarial in type. Their normal habitat is in man during at least part 

 of the cycle of their existence, for which reason these diseases are 

 never contracted away from the haunts of men. Therefore we may 

 hope by improved sanitation, isolation, etc., to utterly exterminate 

 the microbes, and put an end to the disease. But what sane person 

 can hope to exterminate or appreciably diminish the microbes which 

 produce alcohol ? Given a sufficient temperature, fermentation occurs 

 everywhere, from the tropics to the pole. 



