21


322  THE  EVOLUTION  AGAINST  NARCOTICS

limited  number  of  men,  each  man  paying  a  nominal  deposit  for  his
knot ;  the  porter  then  starts  work,  receiving  at  the  warehouse  door
for  each  box  he  takes  in  a  brass  ticket  marked  with  the  amount  of
his  fee,  id.,  2d.  or  3d.,  according  to  the  size  of  the  box.  These
tickets  he  can  get  changed  for  money  later  in  the  day  by  the  clerk,
or  he  can  bring  them  at  any  time  to  a  public-house  which  enjoys
the  special  privilege  of  cashing  them,  the  porter  taking  a  certain  pro-
portion of  their  value  in  drink.  The  second  alternative  is,  of  course,
nearly  always  adopted,  and,  as  a  consequence,  a  large  number  of  these
men  do  their  work  almost  exclusively  on  beer.  As  soon  as  its  effect
is  sufficiently  visible  to  suggest  risk  of  accident,  the  man  has  to  give
up  his  knot  for  the  day,  and  is  replaced  by  a  fresh  hand.  These
conditions  produce  the  maximum  development  of  industrial
alcoholism." 1

544.  The  belief  that  parental  drinking  commonly  tends  to  alter
the  germ-plasm,  and  so  results  in  filial  degeneration,  was  universal
until  recently,  and  is  still  very  prevalent  amongst  medical  men.
