Note 206 — Chapter III

c. Race. There are many persons who attribute much importance in the etiology of alcoholism, as in other social phenomena, to the influence of race. Where two nations differing racially have not the same consumption of alcohol, they think they can explain the difference by race. But in reasoning thus they forget that two nations may present great differences in their manner of life, and that the greater or less consumption of alcohol may be explained better by these than by race (without counting that racial difference in the tendency to alcoholism is still to be accounted for somehow). To cite an example; the peoples of the Germanic race are more intemperate, than the peoples of the Latin race (a fact already explained by the climate, and further accounted for by the cheapness of wine); this difference it is said is to be explained in part by race. And yet the use of brandy in northern Italy increases with increasing industrialism, northern industrial France gives a very high figure for brandy-consumption, and the Belgians of the Latin race do not yield to their Germanic compatriots in the use of alcohol.206 The proverbial temperance of the Jews is often attributed to their race, while we should ask whether this temperance is not rather to be attributed to their manner of life, which differs from that of other peoples. It is probable that the Jewish industrial workers, for example, who have broken with the habits of their coreligionists, have also become consumers of spirituous beverages. As far as the diamond-cutters of Amsterdam are concerned this fact is at least averred.207 The tendency which is observed among the Slavic peoples of becoming intoxicated periodically in an extraordinary fashion, is attributed to race, but the same thing is observed in other countries where wages are very low, thus preventing regular drinking, and limiting the consumption of alcohol to paydays.208