Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/338

326 be in the direction of an increasing power of tolerating the poison, or in the direction of an increasing power of avoiding it, that is, of abstaining from it, or both, i.e. it may result in an increased power of imbibing alcohol without ill effects, or it may result in a diminution of the craving for it, or both. In the presence of an abundant supply of alcohol and of a craving for it, it can hardly result to any great extent in an increased power of toleration, for, under such circumstances, the drunkard would simply drink more, and thereby poison himself as effectually as a less resistant person would with a smaller quantity. The evolution against alcohol must therefore be in the direction of an increased power of avoiding it—in a diminution of the craving for it. À priori, therefore, we should expect that races that have long been familiar with alcohol, like races that have long been familiar with a very prevalent and deadly disease, are less harmfully affected by it than races that have had little or no experience of it, and this because they crave less for it, and therefore drink less of it. À posteriori, this is exactly what we do find. The peoples inhabiting the northern coast of the Mediterranean, the Greeks, the Italians, the South Frenchmen, and the Spaniards, who have lived for thousands of years in the presence of an abundant supply of alcohol, are preeminently temperate, whereas savages of all races, who have had no racial experience of it, or a slight experience only, the natives of North and South America, Australia, Polynesia, Africa, Greenland, &c., whether inhabiting the Arctic, the Temperate, or the Torrid zone, crave for it to such a degree that, unless we protect them by prohibitory laws, they perish in its presence. Moreover, races that, in their experience of alcohol, are intermediate between the Italian and the North American Indians, crave for alcohol, and are inclined to excessive indulgence in it, more than the former and