Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/347

Rh Europeans. Indeed it is probable in England, for example, where so much misery is caused by alcohol, where public opinion is so much against excessive indulgence in it, and where the cost of indulgence is ruinously high, that the traits acquired by the inhabitants are such as tend much more to counteract alcoholic craving than the traits acquired by the inhabitants of Italy and Greece, where little misery is caused, where public opinion is much less powerful, and where indulgence is much less costly. We must conclude, therefore, that the inhabitants of Southern Europe are more abstemious than those of Northern Europe, à fortiori, than savages, not because the craving for alcohol is in them more counteracted by the influence of precept and example, or because it is more stimulated by precept and example among the North Europeans and savages, but solely because among them the craving is weaker, or practically non-existent.

It is said that racial differences with respect to the craving for alcohol result from differences in the strength, &c. of the alcoholic beverages in common use in various countries; for instance, it is said that the English are more drunken than the Italians, because the spirits and fortified wines they drink are stronger than the light "natural" wines drunk in Italy; but this hypothesis is evidently founded on a confusion of cause and effect. It is evidently not true that the English are more inclined to drunkenness than the Italians, because their alcohol is less dilute; but, on the other hand, it is evidently true that because the English are more inclined to drunkenness than the Italians they prefer their alcohol of greaterstrength. The British Army of invasion during the Peninsular War was exceedingly drunken on the wines of the country, in the presence of which the Spanish Army remained abstemious; on the other hand, various savage races, such as the natives of Guiana, with their