From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Warren Maude Moorsom
Date:
11 Sept [1877]
Source of text:
DAR 146: 385a
Summary:
Thinks most monkeys would become habituated to alcohol if they could get it.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Showing 1–4 of 4 items
Thinks most monkeys would become habituated to alcohol if they could get it.
In Descent [1: 12] CD discusses intoxication among animals. South African elephants reportedly eat a plant that makes them wild.
Pleased with CD’s interest in temperance. Can he quote CD? Sorry the elephant story is a myth. It fits his argument for temperance: a passion for alcohol is natural [primitive]. Only the morally developed can resist. Moral development will take a long time. Thus education cannot cure alcoholism now. Thus public sale of alcohol must be outlawed. Although he is a follower of J. S. Mill and Herbert Spencer he has been forced to this conclusion.
Sends extract reporting elephants that get drunk on a plant.