262 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



hundreds of cases tried at his court during the twelve months, not 

 one was traceable to the abuse of strong drink." — (" Nine Years at 

 the Gold Coast," by the Rev. D. Kemp.) 



" It is a mistake to suppose that intoxication was unknown 

 among the natives of West Africa until the merchant gave them 

 gin and rum, or that the work of the missionary has been baffled 

 by the sale of these liquors. My experience is, and I have seen 

 the native far inland and at places at the coast where contact with 

 the Europeans is frequent, that there is very little drunkenness 

 among them, certainly nothing to be compared with that to be 

 met with in the towns and villages of Christian England, and that 

 when intoxication occurs, it is as often the result of drinking palm 

 wine as of gin or other imported liquor." — ("The Siege of Kumassi," 

 by Lady Hodgson.) 



APPENDIX I 



"The relative intoxicating power of wine and beer has recently 

 been discussed in the public press, and Truth committed itself to 

 the opinion that it takes more beer than wine to make a man 

 drunk, and that if the sale of spirits were prohibited in England 

 there would be very little drunkenness. Clearly an important 

 point in settling this question is the degree of dilution of the 

 alcohol, whether with soda water or with a diffusion of hop. In 

 this relation the following figures, adapted from the Allgemaint 

 Zeitung for 19th July, may be of interest. They show the 

 consumption of wine, beer, and whisky per head, in pints, for 

 Europe and America during 1898. They give also an estimate of 

 the equivalent in pure alcohol for each of the beverages. The 

 strongest beer contains about 9 per cent, of alcohol, and the 

 weakest about 2 per cent. ; therefore the average ratio is taken as 

 5.5 per cent. Sherry contains about 27 per cent, of alcohol. 



