Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/374

362 It is clear then that those races of India which use opium are very highly resistant to it. As regards China, while competent witnesses frequently declared that the accounts given by missionaries of its evil effects are exaggerated, it is significant that none of them appear to have declared, as so many did of India, that opium-smoking is totally unattended by harm.

Sir Thomas Wade said—

"No man who has lived the time I have in China, and who has been in contact with Chinese of all kinds, can deny that the excessive use of opium in that country is an exceeding misfortune to that country, and I myself have stated that proposition, perhaps more positively years ago than I should be prepared to do at this moment. That is to say, that without at all pretending to abate the statement that many people—many thousands of people—do suffer from the excessive use of opium, it is to a great number of people precisely what the use of alcoholic stimulants to the people in our country, taken moderately, is; that is to say, that it will cheer the workman just as our workman is cheered by his glass of beer."—Ibid. p. 87.

In an article quoted before the Commission Dr. Ayres wrote—

"My opinion is, that it (opium-smoking) may become a habit, but that the habit is not necessarily an increasing one. Nine out of twelve men smoke a certain number of pipes a day, just as a tobacco-smoker would, or as a wine or beer-drinker might drink his two or three glasses a day, without desiring more. I think the excessive opium-smoker is in a greater minority than the excessive spirit-drinker or tobacco-smoker. In my experience, the habit does no physical harm in moderation.... I do not wish to defend the practice of opium-smoking, but in the face of the rash opinions