Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/370

358 and it seems to turn them into everything that is bad. I speak now especially of the heathen."—Rev. F. Brown, First Report, Royal Commission on Opium, p. 50.

But even if it be proved true that opium has the alleged disastrous effect on the morals of the heathen, yet, since the possession of a high moral tone does not appreciably affect the survival rate, this aspect of the matter does not concern us here. It need only be remarked, that it is highly unlikely that opium, any more than alcohol, does directly produce such mental effects. Indirectly, through loss of independence, self-respect, &c., it certainly may do so.

On the other hand, some of the scientific witnesses seemed to have erred in the opposite extreme by attributing to opium a role altogether too innocent in India. It cannot be that it is entirely harmless there; for however resistant evolution may have rendered the mass of the people, there must occur among them some cases of retrogression in relation to opium, just as some cases of retrogression in relation to alcohol occur among the South Europeans—cases, that is, of arrested development, in which the individual in his ontogeny does not recapitulate the whole of the phylogeny, but halts at the stage a more or less remote ancestor reached. But the mere fact that so many highly-skilled observers, favoured with splendid opportunities, failed to meet with or observe cases of excessive indulgence, proves how great must be the evolution in relation to opium of the natives of India. The following extracts are, for convenience of reference, taken solely from the "First Report" of the Commission, but the succeeding Reports fully confirm the evidence given in it. Sir George Birdwood said—

"I wish here to speak only of my personal observation of the habitual use of opium during my fifteen years'