282 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



drunken when given the opportunity. The English who consume 

 three-quarters of their alcohol as beer, and less than one- 

 quarter as spirits, are less temperate than South Europeans, 

 whose wine, on the average, is more than twice as strong as 

 beer. 



Lastly, it is hinted that savages are drunken because they 

 lack self-control — an unproved and unprovable assumption. 

 Savages are drunk because they are intensely tempted by 

 alcohol. Most of us are sober, not because we exercise great 

 self-control, but simply because we lack the great craving that 

 savages have. If the contrary were true, we, who have constant 

 opportunities for indulgence, should each of us be tormented by 

 a continual craving to get drunk. I am sure that is not the case 

 with most of us. If, instead of thinking in the abstract terms of 

 the paragraph, we examine concrete cases, it will be found that 

 national differences with respect to drinking depend almost wholly 

 on elimination. When there are concomitant circumstances they 

 will be found to minimise, not to accentuate, the differences. 

 Thus the dear alcohol and the vigorous temperance propaganda 

 in Great Britain minimise the difference between the British and 

 the South Europeans, who have cheap alcohol and no temperance 

 propaganda. Again, in Great Britain, temperance is a much 

 desired and sought-for ideal. In the South of Europe it 

 is not, since it is a fact accompHshed without effort. 

 People no longer strive for that which they have already 

 attained. 



The Committee had a clear and unmistakable message of 

 high importance to give. It had discovered that certain popular 

 beliefs were mere superstitions. It is a thousand pities that it 

 has failed in some respects to deliver its message clearly and 

 emphatically. The Report should have been founded solely on 

 verifiable evidence ; some of it is altogether against the weight of 

 evidence. G. Archdall Reid. 



