THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 337 



individuals of any race, when once that desire has been 

 awakened in them by the use of alcohol, is exactly in 

 inverse proportion to the past familiarity of the race 

 with the poison ; in other words, it is exactly in inverse 

 proportion to the amount of elimination alcohol has 

 caused in the ancestry. But however extended the 

 racial experience of alcohol, the desire for intoxication 

 is never entirely eradicated, for, since the smallest 

 amount of alcohol must produce some mental change, 

 however small, and since smaller or larger quantities 

 of it are imbibed by all races with pleasure, it is clear 

 that all races, from the South Europeans to the Red 

 Indians, drink it with more or less conscious desire of 

 producing some degree of intoxication. The difference 

 between races lies in the degree of intoxication desired. 

 The South Europeans, who have had a long and 

 disastrous experience of the poison, on the average 

 desire intoxication to such a degree only as practically 

 speaking leaves them unaffected for the struggle for 

 existence in its presence. The North Europeans, who 

 have had a less extended and disastrous experience of 

 it, on the average desire intoxication to such a degree 

 that in the presence of it many of them are injuriously 

 affected for the struggle. But savages, who have had 

 little or no experience of it, on the average desire 

 intoxication to such a degree that in the presence of an 

 abundant supply of alcohol the whole of them, prac- 

 tically speaking, are rendered unfit. In all this alcohol 

 very closely resembles such a disease as malaria, which 

 is so prevalent in its areas of distribution, that, prac- 

 tically speaking, every individual within them is liable 

 to infection, and which least affects individuals of races 

 that have had long and disastrous experience of it, 

 more individuals of races that have had less experience 

 of it, and most individuals of races that have had little 

 or no experience of it. In the presence of very virulent 



z 



