r of soldiers he could make for the
use of his son. He had good reason to provide for the replenishment of
the ranks of his army. The mental quality of the individuals mattered
little to him. Wars are a harmful factor in human selection, for they
destroy or mutilate the fittest in the prime of life, while leaving
the unfit and the aged.

Moreover, we have already seen to what an extent the quality and even
the quantity of soldiers suffer from venereal disease and alcohol.
After certain long wars the male population has been decimated to such
a point that polygamy had to be resorted to to reconstitute the
nation. It is, therefore, obvious that wars have a bad influence on
the sexual relations of men, and hence on the quantity, or what is
still worse, the quality of a nation.

=Statistics.=--Political economy is still more important. I do not
doubt the correctness of the figures which tell us that under this or
that economic system the population increases, while under another
system it diminishes, etc. But these are only summary data whose true
causes remain in the dark. It is necessary to carefully study the
factors which produce these figures. Emigration and immigration with
their causes, the intimate habits of individuals and families, their
willingness and aptitude for work, etc. One fact which follows another
is not always the direct consequence of it and if we examine things
more closely, we arrive at curious results.

=Alcohol.=--Things being otherwise equal, it is found that nations who
abstain from alcohol and those who are moderate consumers are more
prolific than nations who are addicted to drink. In Russia, for
instance, the abstainers, although of the same race and living under
the same conditions, are more prolific than their neighbors who drink.

As we have already pointed out, alcohol greatly deteriorates the
quality of man by blastophthoria, and we must agree with men such as
Darwin, Gladstone, Cobden, Comte, etc., that alcohol (even in
so-called moderation) does more harm to a nation than war, plague and
famine together.

We find here an economic factor of the first order, to which the
majority of economists (with the exception of Cobden) are blind. It
is a very short-sighted policy to regard the alcohol industry as a
source of wealth and welfare for nations. What an amount of labor,
human power and valuable land is employed to produce this mischievous
substance which, although useful in pharmacy