370 THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OP MAN — MENTAL 



further follows, that if a race which has undergone evo- 

 lution against any particular narcotic be debarred from 

 the use of it, it may, by seeking to satisfy its craving by 

 indulgence in a narcotic of which it has had little or no 

 experience, be drawn into much" greater excesses, and 

 therefore be much more injured than it was by the 

 narcotic of which it already had had a long and dis- 

 astrous experience, and therefore against which it had 

 undergone protective evolution. For instance, if the 

 natives of India are debarred from the use of opium, 

 or if Englishmen are debarred from the use of alcohol, 

 it is possible, by substituting alcohol for opium in the 

 one case, and opium for alcohol in the other, that each 

 race will suffer much more than it otherwise would. 



In any case the question is by no means so simple as 

 it is thought to be by temperance reformers, with whom 

 as to ends I am in the heartiest sympathy, but with 

 whom as to means I am at issue. 



In conclusion, it is surely clear that if the world is to 

 become more temperate it must be by the elimination 

 not of drink, but of the excessive drinker. If Artificiah 

 Selection be found impracticable in the future, as, owing ' 

 to the state of public opinion, it undoubtedly is at present, 

 then the only alternative is Natural Selection, in which 

 case the world will never be thoroughly sober until it 

 has first been thoroughly drunk. 



THE END 



Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bwngay. 



