276 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



XIV. It follows that the inborn tendency to inebriety is 

 heritable, and that the trait is most marked in races that have 

 had little or no experience of the poison. Apparently the trait 

 arose in man quite apart from the use of alcohol, since races that 

 have had no experience of alcohol or any other narcotic are the 

 most drunken of all when afforded the opportunity. Setting aside 

 all a priori considerations, and judging solely by available 

 evidence, the Committee are of the opinion that the continued 

 use, or rather abuse, of alcohol tends to render a race less 

 innately prone to excessive indulgence than it would otherwise 

 have been, and that this result is brought about by the elimina- 

 tion of those with a strong tendency to alcoholic indulgence, 

 and the survival of those with a weak tendency to alcoholic 

 indulgence. They are aware of, and have devoted full con- 

 sideration to, the widespread belief that parental indulgence 

 tends to render offspring more innately prone than they other- 

 wise would have been to excessive indulgence, but they can only 

 reiterate their conviction, that the existing evidence on the 

 subject does not at present warrant such a conclusion. — See 

 Professor Sims Woodkead's and Dr T. Morton! s comments. 



XV. The offspring of women intemperate during their preg- 

 nancies are not included in the foregoing conclusions. There is 

 some evidence that foetuses and embryos are injured by maternal 

 inebriety; but here again the Committee has no conclusive 

 evidence that this injury takes such a form that in subsequent 

 life the children have a special predisposition to inebriety. 



Signed by — 



William Wynn Westcott, Chairman. 



Harry Campbell. 



Laing Gordon. 



William Francis Hazell. 



G. Archdall Reid. 



Aydon Smith. 



HEYVifooD Smith. 



Sims Woodhead. 



Thomas Morton, Honorary Secretary. 



