The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-12-04
TIE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INrEMPERANcE.

The Blood Of tho Nation-SIost Excess in
the Use Of Alcohol IL Not Duo to
Primitive Appetite - The Power OF
Bad Influence.
President David Starr Jordan. Of the
Leland Stanford University, has pub
lished in the Popular SCIENCE Monthly 9
the Nation: A Study of the Decay Of
Races'T Through the Survival of the Unfit"
That class of philosophers who are en-
deavoring to establish the theory that
drunkenness and it's attending vices and
miseries are clearly part of the progress
of the human race will find little comfort
in DR.. .Iordan's article. Conceding to,
those gentlemen a certain ar7uupt of truth
which it would be extremely difficult to
prove in behalf of their theories, DR.. Jor.
dan says:
"The effect of alcoholic drink on race
progress should be considered in this con.
nection. Authorities do not agree as to
the final result of alcohol in race selec.
ton. Doubtless, in the long run, the
drunkard will be eliminated, and perhaps
certain authors are right in regarding this
as gain to the race On the other hand
there is great force in DR.. Amos G. War.
ner's remark, that of all caustics gangrens
is the most expensive. The people Of
Southern Europe are relatively temperate.
They have used wine for centuries, and il
is thought by Archdall Reid and others
that the cause of their temperance is to
be found in this long use of alcoholic bev.
erages. All those with vitiated or uncon.
trollable appetites have been destroyed in
the long experience with wine, leaving
only those with normal tastes and normal
ability of resistance. The free use of wine
is, therefore, in this view, cause Of
final temperance, while intemperance
RACES only among those races which have
not long known alcohol, and have not be.
come by selection resistant to, it. The
savage races which have never known al
cohol are even less resistant, and are soon.
er destroyed by it.
"In all this there must be certain ele.
ment of truth. The view, however, ig.
nores the evil effect on the nervous sys.
tenn of long-continued poisoning, even il
the poison be only IN moderate amounts.
The temperate italian, with his daily semi
saturation. is no more a normal man than
the Scotch farmer, with his occasional
sprees. The nerve disturbance which wine
effects is an evil, whether carried to ex-
cess in regularity or irregularity. We
know too little Of its final result on the
race to give certainty to our speculations.
It is moreover true that most excess In
the use of alcohol is not due to primitive
appetite. It is drink which causes appe-
tite, and not appetite which seeks for,
drink In q given number of drunkardS
but very few become such through in
born appetite It is influence of bad ex-
ample, lack of courage, false idea of man
illness, or some defect in character or mis-
fortune in environment which leads to the
first steps in drunkenness. The taste
once established takes care Of itself. In
earlier times, when the nature of alcohol
was unknown and total abstinence was un-
dreamed Of, it was the strong, the bolster
GUS, the energetic, the apostle Of the
strenuous life, who carried all things to
excess. The wassail bgHl the bumper OF
attribute of the strong. We. cannot say
that those who sank in alcoholism thereby
illustrated the survival of the fttest. Who
can say that as the Latin races became
temperate they did not also become docile
and weak? In other words, considering
the influence of alcohol alone, unchecked
BY an educated conscience. we must ad.
NIT that it is the strong and vigorous, not
the weak and perverted, that are: de.
stroyed by it. At the best, we can only
saw that alcoholic selection is complex
force, which makes for temperance-if at
all. at a fearful cost of life which without
alcoholic temptation would be well worth
Dr.. Jordan, it is to be presumed, would
not care to be understood as indorsing the
idea that the wine-drinking countries OF
Europe have been made temperate by their
wine:drinking. He is probably much TOO
we'll acquainted with the current history
of France and the other so-calied WINE
countries" to be in ignorance OF the true
e r.,1