One of the chief aims of this treatise is to demonstrate, from the facts of history and experience, that excessive indulgence in intoxicating beverages has wrought incalculable mischief to the human race; and it is therefore a matter of regret to the author that his first duty should be to call in question the doctrine propounded by some of the ablest advocates of total abstinence, that there is no instinctive desire in the human race for alcoholic or other artificial stimulants. That doctrine has recently been placed before the public in definite and unmistakable language by Dr. B. W. Richardson, the discoverer of one of our most valuable pain alleviators, and himself an earnest disciple of the cause of total abstinence. He says[1] that the lower animals have never shown an instinctive desire for alcohol; that all children instinctively dislike such drinks, and shrink from them; that inasmuch as there have been nations (which, however, he does not name) that have never shown the instinct, therefore the historical evidence which is adduced in favour of the instinctive theory breaks down; and, strangest proposition of all, that not only has nature provided no instinct in any young animal for alcohol, but she has not herself provided the alcohol for the instinct. Now, so far as children are concerned, Dr. Richardson’s statement is far too sweeping. Many children do like intoxicating drinks, unless they have a disagreeable flavour; and practically there are myriads of children born with an innate tendency to indulge in such beverages, whether or not it may show itself in the first years of their existence; for, as Dr. Richardson himself remarks elsewhere,[2] the taste for drink, with its consequences, is transmitted from parent to child. Then, as regards the domesticated animals, many of them are fond of wine; but it may be urged that this is the result of their association with mankind. Possibly so; but the same does not hold good in the case of the monkey tribes, the highest of all the inferior animals, and those which approach nearest to human beings in their structure and habits. One of the most careful and trustworthy of modern naturalists, Mr. Charles Darwin, has told us that many kinds of monkeys have a strong taste for tea, coffee, and spirituous liquors, and that he has seen them smoke tobacco.[3] Moreover, writing on the authority of Brehm,[4] he says that the natives of North-Eastern Africa catch the wild baboons by exposing vessels with strong beer, by which they are made drunk. He has seen some of those animals which he kept in confinement in this state, and he gives a laughable account of their behaviour and strange grimaces. On the following morning they were cross and dismal; they held their aching heads with both hands, and wore a most pitiable expression; when beer or wine was offered them they turned away with disgust, but relished the juice of lemons. An American monkey—an Ateles—after getting drunk on