Alcoholic Beverages:

Their use and Abuse.

Being the substance of a lecture written by a Doctor for the All Saints' Young Men's Literary Society.

have chosen to treat this subject in a short paper for two reasons. First, because the alcohol question is of itself one of the most important problems at present engaging the attention of the public; and, secondly, because (since a phase of the question falls properly to the province of medicine) I ought to be more at home with my subject than with other "burning matters," such as, for instance, the Bible in schools, Protection versus Free Trade, or the admission of women to the pulpit, the bar, or the Upper House of the Legislature.

And surely I do not exaggerate when I assert that the importance of the alcohol question is second to no question of reform which has ever come before a civilised community for serious consideration. This being the case, while it will be my endeavour to make my meaning easily understood, and to avoid as far as possible the use of technicalities, I trust you will endeavour to give to my remarks that calm attention which the urgency of the subject demands.

At the outset, I will state the composition of this chemical:—

Pure alcohol is a chemical substance compounded of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (C 2, H 6, O). It is a clear colourless liquid of 795 specific gravity, water being 1000. On the application of a very gentle heat it entirely evaporates, and burns without leaving any residue. It has a very great affinity to water, and it shrivels up tissues like flesh when it comes into contact with them by depriving them of their moisture. If you place a little of it upon your warm skin it causes a sensation of cold, on account of its rapid evaporation. Should it come into contact with a sore it will provoke a severe smarting pain, and tend to dry up the sore surface by combining with its fluids. It greatly irritates tender parts, such as the lining of the mouth, the nostrils, eyelids, and the coating of the stomach. It acts on the stomach like an irritant poison, causing great pain, and in doses of an ounce or two will kill a dog of ordinary size in little over an hour, or even less. Of course you must remember that I am now speaking of pure alcohol—a liquid which very probably you have never seen. It is to be found in various proportions in all spirits, wines, beers, and liqueurs, in each of which it is the active principle.

There are two spirits with which you may be acquainted, as they are used in trade, viz., "rectified spirit of wine," which is made of pure alcohol and distilled water, the water being used in the proportion of 16 per cent.; and "proof spirit," which consists also of pure alcohol and water in nearly the same proportions.

As far as we can tell, alcohol has been known for about 600 years only, and was, I believe, discovered by the Arabians, who were at that time the best chemists. The alcohol distilled by them was distilled from wines. Gun-powder, after its discovery, was used to test the strength of the distilled fluid, in the following manner:—The gunpowder was well wetted with the spirit to be tested, and then if a lighted match set fire to the mixture the spirit was said to be "proof." Hence the origin of the term "proof spirit." Proof spirits are used very largely in medicines, tinctures, lotions, &c.

Alcohol nowadays is manufactured on a gigantic scale page 5 from grain, such as barley, oats, rye, &c.; from fruit, such as grapes, apples, pears, &c.; from roots, such as beetroot and potatoes; from mares' milk, rice, molasses, or from anything containing starch or sugar. That from mares' milk, so much used by the Tartars, is called "koumiss;" that from potatoes, used by the Russian peasantry, is called "vodki." Of these various alcohols, those made from grapes and grain are the best.

We will now turn our attention to alcoholic beverages as we are accustomed to use them as articles of diet, and before considering the spirituous drinks we see on the dinner-table we will say something about strong drinks, commencing with brandy, its use, and its common adulterations. To start with, however, it may not be out of place to deal generally with the question of adulteration of alcoholic drinks, a subject of very great importance, but which is, nevertheless, almost entirely overlooked by the various Governments which derive a large proportion of their revenue from this traffic. The Imperial Government is as remiss in this matter as any Colonial Government could be. This is a crying evil, and one which, as we shall notice, entails great and grievous sufferings on the body politic. It is almost always forgotten that the State itself is by far the most interested party connected with this enormous trade. Before spirits leave bend the Government collects a duty of 12s. a gallon on the spirit, for which the manufacturer—who supplies material, plant, and labour—gets at most from 5s. to 8s. And then, again, the article having been thus disposed of by the State, the retailer cannot sell a drop without paying the Government a sum of money for a license. It will thus be seen that 65, if not even 70, per cent, of the money turned over by this traffic goes to the Government. Surely, then, the State should be looked upon as the wholesale vendor, and as such should be compelled to supply the genuine commercial article, and not spurious poisoned stuff. It is clearly the bounden duty of the authorities to carefully test all liquors meant for human consumption, and thus endeavour in one very important respect to lessen the enormous mischief wrought upon the page 6 community through intoxicating drinks. Instead, however, of this being the case, we find that the great difficulty is to get any drink which is not adulterated in one way or another. It is all very well to say, "If drinks are bad, what then? you need not buy them; you will do as well without stimulants." It may be so; but seeing that the community will have stimulants, let them have such in the greatest state of purity, in order that the evils arising from the traffic may be in some degree diminished. No argument as to the questionable utility of a commercial article can justify the fraud of adulteration, even though the great culprit be the lawmaker himself. Surely in this matter our legislators are showing a very sorry example to the people. It is scarcely to be wondered at that tradesmen are not always slow to follow so convenient a method of making the best out of their wares. And yet when the tradesman is convicted of adding water to milk he does not escape unpunished; for by loss of reputation, as well as by being fined, he may be compelled to fall back upon the old conclusion, that, after all, "Honesty is the best policy." But even loss of reputation in matters of internal commerce does not affect the State, as it is without a competitor, without a partner.

When you have heard something of the poisonous materials used in adulteration, and of the extent to which this pernicious practice obtains, you will, I am sure, wonder with me that our admirable philanthropic friends, who expend so much time and labour in trying to lessen the evils of intemperance, have almost entirely neglected this important branch of the question. The mischief worked by the sale of spurious and adulterated drinks would, I believe, soon be rectified were its enormous extent once perceived.

Happily the spirits used in the preparation of drugs are not likely to be tampered with, although even here methylated spirits, on account of their cheapness, are often substituted for proper spirits of wine or rectified spirits. On this matter of adulteration I may make further passing remarks as we proceed.

In looking at these figures you must remember that there are all sorts of variations between the highest and lowest percentage given, and, as a matter of fact, slight variations might be found in genuine different specimens of the very same brands. This, however, is of little consequence at present.

Brandy is perhaps, of all strong drinks the most universally used in civilised countries. In some countries, of course, more may be used of some other spirit, as gin in England, or whisky in Scotland and Ireland. Still, upon the whole, brandy is more generally to be met with than any of the others. Pure brandy is manufactured by the distillation of wine. The quantity of it consumed in the course of a year is fabulously large. I mean, of course, of stuff called brandy. And yet, as a matter of fact, genuine brandy is exceedingly scarce, so much so that in all likelihood many who have been in the habit of drinking brandy more or less for many years may never have consumed twenty ounces of the real spirit. From this you will justly conclude that spurious brandy is produced on a gigantic scale, and it were well if the ingredients used in the manufacture of adulterated brandies were such as man could use with no more danger to health or life than would be incurred by indulging in the pure article. Such is, however, unfortunately far from being the case.

A very large quantity of raw grain spirit is manufactured in the Home Country and imported into France. There a small quantity of inferior brandy is mixed with the common spirit, together with other ingredients, making a compound which is sold as French brandy to the foreign consumer. Even this substitute for brandy gene- page 8 rally undergoes further "doctoring" in Britain, by the addition of water and other substances before it reaches the public. But the manufacture of a large amount of brandy takes place in the Home Country itself. Dr. Normandy, giving evidence before a Royal Commission, says:—"Brandy is extensively prepared in this country, especially since the discoveries by modern chemistry for producing artificially-prepared essential oils—oils which have the peculiar odour of that ether to which brandy owes its flavour. The spirits required—whether derived from corn, beetroot, molasses, &c.—must be carefully rectified in order to free them from all traces of any peculiar characteristic odour or taste which might lead to the detection of their unholy origin." Among other deleterious ingredients used to adulterate brandy we find spirits of almond cake, which contains some of the most violent poisons known—i.e., prussic acid.

Gin is probably the most commonly adulterated spirit in common use. It is very difficult indeed to meet with it in anything like a pure state. Gin was originally made in Holland, in a place called Schiedam. This liquor, when pure, is exclusively the product of rectified malt spirit from barley and juniper berries. I need not, therefore, say that you seldom come across proper gin. In England gin is made for the most part from a mixture which consists of raw grain spirits, with the addition of juniper berries; sometimes the spirit used is extracted from molasses, and in addition to juniper berries other substances are used for flavouring purposes; most of those so used are aromatic, such as coriander-seed, and cardamons, and caraway-seeds, grains of Paradise, angelica-root, crushed almond cake, liquorice powder, and orange peel.

Water, of course, is added to undue excess, which gives a turbid milky appearance to the liquor, and in order to "fine" this away, recourse is had to the use of such materials as subcarbonate of potass, and sometimes sugar of lead and alum; thus is the bastard liquor made presentable to the eye. Now, consider for a moment what you may really swallow when you take a glass of gin. You take proof spirit and juniper berries, water and subcarbonate of potass page 9 and perhaps sugar of lead and alum; nay, in addition to these there may be several other deleterious ingredients, for sometimes a mixture of alum, potash carbonate, almond oil, oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid), and methylated spirits of wine, are added to the feeble and already adulterated gin. Sometimes, when the gin is very much weakened, tincture of capsicum (cayenne), or grains of Paradise are added. Surely raw spirits of themselves are sufficiently injurious to the lining of the stomach, without the scandalous addition of pungent agents which no stomach or system can long with-stand. In Dr. Hassall's examination of 38 samples of gin, all contained sugar, some in large quantities. Two contained oil of cinnamon, seven a large quantity of cayenne pepper, while most—almost all—of the samples contained sulphates. Sulphate of zinc, an emetic and a poison, is also used sometimes. If this were to act quickly it would be no great matter, but it does not necessarily do so.

We see, therefore, that gin is almost always adulterated, and generally with deleterious materials, yet even at Home one never hears so, say Dr. Hassall (than whom no greater authority on such a matter lives); although by the sale of these vile concotions not only is the public a great sufferer, but the revenue is also very largely defrauded.

Rum, which is chiefly made from molasses, is adulterated in much the same manner as gin. Cayenne pepper and Indian hemp are largely used for the purpose. The quantity of rum imported into the United Kingdom is about 3,250,000 gallons per annum.

I have, I think, already said that wines contain from 9 to 25 per cent, of alcohol. This is sometimes exceeded by fortifying inferior wines. Port is usually the strongest so far as the proportion of alcohol is concerned. It may be said with safety that port is generally adulterated with brandy, and that the brandy so used is not always of the best quality. It is almost unnecessary to tell you that no wine is so much adulterated as port, and that the quantity of port used in all parts of the world is altogether out of proportion to the quantity produced by the wine countries. Like brandy, you will find port in every shanty that has a page 10 license, no matter where you travel. Among its many adulterations we find elderberry colouring matter. A compound called jerupiga, composed of elderberries, brown sugar, unfermented grape juice, and brandy, is largely used in the manufacture of British ports. Logwood is also much used in colouring port and giving it astringency. Extract of sweet-brier, cherry laurel water, tincture of grape seeds, oak sawdust, gypsum (calc. sulph.), and salts of tartar are used to adulterate this wine. Here is a nice safe receipt for keeping wine from turning:—Put 1lb. sugar of lead melted in water into the cask pretty warm and stop it close. Here is another:—Put a little vinegar in which litharge has been steeped, and boil with it some honey to draw out the wax (fat); place a quart of this in 42 gallons. This will mend it.

It surely is little to be wondered at that vile mixtures of this description produce so much mischief. Lead is a more subtle and dangerous poison than is at all generally known, and causes more mischief by its admixture with various drinks, spirits, wines, beers, tea (which is often adulterated with it), and the water which we draw from the tap, than is recognised. I have known youngsters given to chewing lead, and have myself done something of it. The taste is sweet: this is accounted for by its forming a soluble compound with the acids in the saliva, which is readily absorbed into the blood. Dr. Warren relates a case in which 32 persons were poisoned by wine. Thirty were seriously ill; one died, and the remaining one became paralytic, which is really almost as bad as death. The amount of lead in this instance was altogether too great; as a rule it is used in small quantities, but it accumulates in the system of such as habitually drink the poisoned wine until chronic lead palsy is induced, and I may here tell you that the disease is in my estimation impossible of thorough cure.

Red wines of the claret class, such as Burgundy, Bordeaux, &c., are not much used amongst us, and what passes for claret here merely consists in general of cheap French red wines, used by the peasantry in that country; or perhaps page 11 of a mixture of cheap red wines and coarse cider. Burgundy, the finest red wine, is very sensitive and not easily adulterated; but as to the adulteration of this class of wine I need say little, as we, as I have said, do not use them largely. Here I may mention that if wines of this class, pure and unadulterated, are to be had, I would strongly urge their use by invalids, or other people who for some reason or other will drink wine, and I believe there is little need to go out of these Colonies for such wine. I have, indeed, no doubt that Colonial wine will soon rival European production to an extent as yet not dreamed of. It even now only requires—like the bagpipes—to be made fashionable to be found in every great house, and in the locker of every steamer. I hope that the hurry to get rich suddenly will not nip this industry in the bud by the production of spurious stuff, instead of the true and pure juice of the grape.

Of champagne little need be said. There is little of it here, or indeed on this side of the line. I believe there is more champagne drunk annually in New York and St. Petersburg than the whole champagne country could produce in two or three years. It thus follows, as a matter of course, that what fetches here from 10s. to 12s. a bottle is spurious. It is indeed, as a rule, either cheap white wine mixed with sugar and colouring matter, or (wholly or in part) gooseberry wine.

We now come to beer and porter. I need not tell you that pure beer is produced entirely from malt and hops; nor perhaps need I add that on that very account it is not often met with. I believe that genuine Bass and Allsop ales are pure, and no doubt there are other firms in the Old Country that produce beer equally good; but they are far from being in the majority. Out of 40 specimens examined by the great sanitary analyst, Dr. Hassall, only six were genuine and unadulterated. The most common adulterations are sugar, treacle, liquorice, salts of tartar, ginger, zinc, linseed; in the hops chiretta, quassia, coculus indicus, camomile, gentian, coriander seeds, exhausted tobacco, strychnine, and salt. The quantity of alcohol in various page 12 samples of beer and porter necessarily differs very much. A pint of London stout contains 1½ ounces of alcohol; a pint of London porter contains¾ ounce.

• Strong ale contains 2 ounces in the pint.
• Mild ale contains 1½ ounces in the pint.
• Pale ale contains 2½ ounces in the pint.
• Port ale contains 4 ounces in the pint.
• Brown sherry contains 4½ ounces in the pint.
• Claret contains 2 ounces in the pint.
• Burgundy contains 2½ ounces in the pint.
• Champagne contains 3 ounces in the pint.
• Madeira contains 4 ounces in the pint.
• Brandy contains 10 ounces in the pint.
• Rum (best) contains 15 ounces in the pint.
• Gin (best) contains 12 ounces in the pint.
• Gin (inferior) contains 16 ounces in the pint.
• Whiskey contains 10 to 10½ ounces in the pint.

Brandy and inferior gin contain sugar: brandy 80 grains to the pint, gin½ ounce. Home-made wines are strongly fortified; even raisin wine is often stronger than port.

"Alcohol is not in chemical combination in these mixtures; it is merely mechanically mixed—it does not exist in Nature. It results from the destruction of sugar; it is the product of art, not of vegetable growth. The juices of the fruits are by the influence of the fungus yeast changed into alcohol, and yeast has the same origin as the malignant exhalations which cause pestilence—the death and rottenness of organic matter."—Hargreaves.

We now come to the most difficult part of the subject—viz., the moderate use of alcoholic drinks. I know of no question more difficult of solution than that of determining the limits of alcoholic use. "In an enquiry of this perplexing nature, there are," according to Sir Andrew Clark M.D., "two things necessary—viz., one is that he who presumes to speak authoritatively upon the subject shall know it. The other is that, however dear a certain side of the subject may be to him, he should speak about it not with the desire to succeed, not with the desire to triumph, but page 13 with a loving, reverent, solemn desire to state the truth about it, and nothing but the truth." I do not for a moment mean to say that I am by any means properly able to tell you much on the matter, but I can at least tell you something about the opinions of leading medical men, and I can also tell you how far I may feel able to take a side in this perplexing controversy. Nothing can outrival the confusion of opinions and facts (so-called) presented to the student by writers on this subject: I mean, of course, professional (i.e., medical) writers. Some go so far as to say that in almost all senses alcohol is a poison, even that its use as a medicine is more than questionable. Others maintain that the outcry against alcoholic drinks is mere nonsense; that, although many are hurt, or even ruined by the excessive use of drink, others are much benefitted by partaking in moderation. These do not go so far as to assert that alcohol is essential to man's well-being, but they say it is nevertheless of importance to it. The great majority of doctors maintain that, in health at all events, it is not only not necessary to the young, but positively harmful; while to such as are forty years of age a moderate amount, say up to two ounces daily, may be beneficial, and is at any rate harmless. You will thus see that, in health at least, it is of little importance in the eyes of the profession. According to this the amount allowed to be harmless is exceedingly small, and I may tell you that this is recommended to be taken only at meals, so the drinking of alcoholic beverages for convivial purposes is silently condemned. It is not considered necessary to say a word in regard to such use of alcohol. Nothing could be more convincing than this silence. Were the subject of the social glass mentioned at all, it would be merely in order to warn us of its danger. Many are perfectly convinced on this point, and yet to their detriment, with eyes wide open, they continue to transgress; some because they like the effects of alcohol, some from an easy disposition and a desire to please, and some even from the fear of appearing peculiar. Strange as it may seem, this dread of being considered peculiar undoubtedly plays a very considerable part in many page 14 of the most important affairs of life. "When at Rome do as the Romans." I remember coming across a passage in Montaigne's Essays in which, speaking of wine and strongly advising its dilution with water at the time of drinking, he yet says that he would as much hate a German who would drink water with his wine as he would hate a Frenchman who would take his wine neat.

Well, I have now shown you that, according to the general opinion of medical men, little importance one way or another is attached to what they call the moderate use of alcohol in health; but I may as well tell you that there is a condition bordering on disease which is, however, not always considered a diseased state, "when the heart of man is oppressed, when the resistance to its motion is excessive, and when the blood flows languidly to the centres of life, nervous and muscular. At such times alcohol cheers. It lets loose the heart from its oppression, it lets flow a brisker current of blood into the failing organs, it aids nutritious changes, and altogether is of temporary service to man. If its use could be limited to this one action, this one purpose, it would be amongst the most excellent gifts of science to mankind." These are the words of Richardson, a great enemy to all abuse of intoxicants. It was he who said, "Alcohol is a dangerous instrument in the hands of the strong and the wise, and a murderous instrument in the hands of the weak and foolish."

Wine among the ancient nations:—It is almost unnecessary to tell you that the manufacture of wine was carried on in the remote ages, and that while some believed that the vine was the direct gift of Heaven, others held that the evil one acquainted man with the art of vine-growing and wine-making for his own sinister purposes. Some believed that the vine was the forbidden fruit. The Talmud, the great comprehensive collection of Jewish laws, statutes, traditions, and legends, records of the Rabbi Jehuda that he thought the vine was indeed the forbidden fruit. Some think that wine was known and used before the flood, and not it would appear without some Scriptural authority, for Christ says (Matt. xxiv. 38-39): "For as in the days page 15 that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark. And they knew not until the flood came and took them all away." It would seem that Milton, too, believed that the grape was the forbidden fruit, "whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe," when he says that

"the force of that fallacious fruit
That with exhilarating vapours, bland
About their spirits had played, and inmost powers
Made err—was now exhaled."

The use of intoxicating drinks was often associated with religious rites and observances, nor was this connection in all cases conducive to looseness of morals or other effects which are always more or less connected with intemperance. The "soma" of the East Indians was itself worshipped as a divinity. This liquid was derived from a plant now unknown, and to it were attributed qualities which cannot be ascribed to any modern intoxicant. It was said to be possessed of the power of strengthening morality, intensifying and concentrating the moral impulses. This we have or the authority of the Vedas. These people had another intoxicant called "sura," which became a national curse Six hundred years before our era, Manu, a lawgiver, found it necessary to make severe laws against the use of this liquor. He directed that they who relapsed after giving up the habit should be compelled to drink it while burning Some historians ascribe the downfall of the great Asiatic monarchies to the effeminating influence of drink. The vast Assyrian power was at last subdued by the sober provinces of Media and Babylonia. The motto of the last independent sovereign of this vast empire—Sardanapalus, a great voluptuary—was "Eat, drink, play, know that thou art mortal: drain present delights, there is no voluptuousness after death." The inhabitants of Media do not appear to have reaped any benefit from the lesson taught by the fall of the great empire, for we find that not long after Media itself became a prey to the same vice. Cyrus, when twelve years old, being on a visit to his grandfather, King of Media, was page 16 so astonished and disgusted at the drunkenness of the Median Court that, when refusing to drink the wine pressed on him by his grandfather, he said, alluding to a late scene, "You seemed to have forgotten yourself, and not to know that you were the king, and when you wished to dance you could not stand. My father only drinks when he is thirsty." This Cyrus overturned his grandfather some time afterwards. In a few years Cyrus was defeated before the walls of Babylon; but Belshazzar, the victor, betook himself to feasting; and Cyrus, gathering the remnants of his defeated forces, stormed the city during the debauch, and having entered it, slew the king. Cyrus, however, by and by did not disdain the wine cup. During the contention between himself and his brother Artaxerxes for priority, he urged among other reasons why he should be chosen before his brother, that he could, without being drunk, consume a greater quantity of liquor. Then after a time Alexander the Great overran Asia, conquering wherever he went. He, too, fell a victim to the seductions of wine, and Seneca writes of him:—"Here is the hero invincible by all the toils of prodigious marches, by all the dangers of sieges and combats, by the most violent extremes of heat and cold, conquered by his intemperance, struck to the earth by the fatal cup of Hercules." According to Boœtius, death was the penalty for drunkenness in Scotland in 166 A.D. (Morewood). Romulus is said to have declined to punish a man who slew his wife for drunkenness. When, however, during the latter days of the Empire drinking to excess became the fashion, women were freely admitted to the drunken orgies, and in time some of the fair could boast of being able to drink the most robust debauchee under the table. Tempora mutantur.

Plato advises that wine be not given to children under 18, and that a man be not allowed to get drunk under 40; after that, Plato would hand him over to Dionysius, the god of wine, that deity who restores young men their good manners and old men their youth. Some people have had an idea that it was a good thing to get thoroughly drunk once a month. Avicenna, a great medical authority, page 17 whose religion forbade the use of wine, plainly asserts the usefulness of an occasional "bout" as a medicine to clear disagreeable "humours" out of the body. This practice is strongly condemned by Sir Thomas Browne, the author of that quaint work, "Religio Medici."

I have now given a hasty and very imperfect sketch of the history of alcohol. I have dwelt on its use in moderation, and, as you know, was led to one decided conclusion—viz., that alcohol is not a necessity to the healthy organism; that it cannot, however, be proved that the small quantities allowed as moderate doses to healthy people are in any way injurious; and that there is also want of proof as to any permanent benefit from those small doses. I feel quite ready to follow Dr. Richardson in this: I believe that there are times when the moderate administration of the drug is of great value, and I must say that under ordinary circumstances I would never dream of taking their glass of wine or beer from middle-aged persons who know how to use without abusing the privilege—whose firmness of character, and whose subdued and properly-controlled passions are not likely to lead them to any deviation from the paths of rectitude and respectability. Some such would undoubtedly feel the want, and imagine that the change of habit would cause them some mischief.

But what is to be said to those who train their very infants to the use of wine? There are many such, and there are many more whose milk is but a vinous mixture, which infallibly and in every way stunts the growth by perverting the secretions of the child's digestive organs, rendering them confirmed peevish dyspeptics while yet at the maternal breast. Many children so fed at the beginning of their lives succumb to the poison conveyed into the stomach by their natural food—the mother's milk. And as many mothers of this kind are careless in their habits, and are, besides, great lovers of bodily ease, they augment the evil done in the production of this dyspepsia, which, of course, renders the child irritable and cross, by giving it in addi- page 18 tion some narcotic drug, under the name of soothing syrup or sleeping powder. Witnessing so often the direful results of such treatment of infants, it is no wonder that this should be a sore point with doctors. No matter what they say, these women will not listen. I remember a case in which the doctor in attendance on an ailing child, when informed that the mother while nursing was in the habit of taking three quarts of London stout per day, told the mother the evil effects of the practice; whereupon she told him for an answer that "the master's wife did the same while having a child at the breast"; but she did not add—which was, nevertheless, true—that the master's wife only reared but two out of four children; nor did she seem to recollect that she had herself lost two children at the breast, and that from the same cause a third was dangerously ill. The weakness of women in this respect is very remarkable, and so difficult of correction that one can almost say with Rochefoucauld, "Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible." Time will not allow me to dwell further upon this important phase of the alcohol question. Interesting and important though it be, it is not one which for a time is likely to appeal to you; but a word like this may be remembered in years to come, and who knows what the result of so trifling a recollection might be? Perhaps very important.

I will now lay before you some quotations from various medical authorities, some agreeing with each other, others as diametrically opposed as the poles. I will begin by giving you the views of Sir James Paget on alcohol used by the healthy individual:—"My study makes me as sure as I could venture to be on any such question that there is not yet any evidence nearly sufficient to make it probable that a moderate use of alcoholic drinks is generally, or even to many, persons injurious; and there are many reasons to believe that such habitual use is on the whole generally useful; and everyone may assume he may safely use them in such moderation as he does not find to be injurious." Again, "Looking further, we find certain indications that alcohol in moderation is on the whole beneficial. Knowing as we page 19 do the troubles transmitted by inheritance from the intemperate, it is hardly conceivable that if moderation were in any degree mischievous, its evils should not by this time have become very evident. The accumulated evils of thirty generations of men given to moderation in drinking should now be noticeable: they should have risen to the level of the manifest evils of one or two generations of excess, or it they were not positively distinct they should have appeared in a comparison with the heirs of those drinking generations with the heirs of those who have been total abstainers for thirty generations. The reverse is the result. West against East, North against South, the heirs of moderate drinkers are better men in mind and body than the heirs of the abstainers." These views of Sir James Paget represent the opinions of a very large number of the members of the medical profession and of the higher educated classes almost everywhere, and it must be admitted that to refute the arguments and conclusions thus solemnly and soberly adduced and arrived at is by no means an easy task. There is no doubt that the question of race is largely involved in this matter, but to what extent it is difficult to say.

With the views of Sir James Paget so fresh in your memories, I would ask you to listen attentively to views of other medical men which are put with equally strong emphasis, and which are diametrically opposed to his. Sir B. Brodie says:—"Alcohol removes the uneasy feeling and inability of exertion which want of sleep occasions. The relief is temporary. Stimulants do not create nervous power; they merely enable us to use up what is left, and then leave us more in need of rest than before." Dr. Billings says:—"Stimulants excite actions, but actions are not strength." Maudsley says:—"Alcohol, like the pawnbroker or usurer, is a present help at the cost of a frightful interest; and if the habit of recurring to it be formed the end must be ' bankruptcy of health.'" This, it may be observed, no one denies. Dr. Edmunds gives no uncertain sound on this matter. He disagrees in toto with Sir J. Paget. His views are so extreme and so contrary to the actual experience of page 20 many men better known than himself, that I for one believe that his feelings had run away with his judgment when he penned the following passage:—"By giving alcohol in cases of exhausting disease, we always do as we should in giving opium or brandy and water to comfort a half-suffocated patient—that is, increase the danger." He concludes by affirming the following propositions:—

1.	That alcohol never sustains the forces of the body, as food or medicine.
2.	That alcohol never acts as a food to the body.
3.	That it has no stimulating property whatever in the sense of increased action either in rate or quantity.
4.	That alcohol always acts as a narcotic, and is always a paralyser of sensation and a lessener of action.

Several of these propositions are by no means correct, as can be seen by the experiments of Parker, Dupré, Beal, Thudicum, and a host of the keenest and most conscientious investigators of the world. One of the men here mentioned, Lionel Beal, believes that life may be considerably prolonged in advanced age, and that we err greatly in not acting on this. Harley says that "Alcohol may be given with advantage when the nervous system is exhausting itself, and when the tissues of the body generally are being exhausted by an activity in excess of the functions of the system."

I need not tire you with more extracts from the works of leading men on the utility of alcohol in health. You have seen that it is of little use, and perhaps of great harm to the healthy individual, particularly when taken to any thing approaching excess. You have been told that on this point most doctors agree, but no sooner do we begin to examine the views of eminent men on the use of alcohol in disease, than we find ourselves floundering hopelessly in a sea of most conflicting opinions. Indeed, to such an extent does this divergence obtain, that one can hardly help fearing that party feeling has been allowed to mingle too freely in this important controversy. I am not prepared to deal with the place and value of this liquid as a drag. I have told you that some hold that under any page 21 disguise, in any quantity, for any purpose, in health or sickness, alcohol to the human body and mind is a poison and nothing else; whilst others, to whose opinions I more than lean, hold that in many diseases it is invaluable. A very interesting paper might be written on alcohol as a medicine, but the subject is difficult to treat without the use of technicalities. However, it is possible that I might upon a future occasion touch upon the subject of this paper, and tell you more of the arguments for or against the use of alcohol in cases of disease.

But this paper would fall far short of the mark, if I were not to devote a short space to the consideration of alcohol from a positive point of view—viz., as a disease-producer. Hitherto, as I have said, we have had to deal with most conflicting views in relation to the moderate use of intoxicants in health, but now we find a concord of opinion amongst medical men of all schools and countries, and indeed of all ages.

The evil effects of drinking alcohol daily are often very obscure, and in many cases hide themselves and escape detection for a very long time. But they are silently at work, and slowly and surely are undermining the constitution. Men thus reach a fair age in good general health, when suddenly, as Dr. Murchison says, "disease shows itself. Then it is found that organic mischief has been for a prolonged period at work among blood-vessels; fatty and calcarious degeneration, diseases of the liver, lungs, brain, and kidneys show themselves—and end life." In addition to such cases as these there are others in which the disease either owes its origin to alcohol in moderation, or is greatly aided in its rapid, fatal career by that cause. It is, of course, impossible to say what amount of disease is directly or indirectly due to alcohol, and it is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that its baneful effects are not confined to the actual drinkers themselves, but extend to the generations unborn in various forms, ranging from insanity and imbecility to gout. It is clearly established that the health and death rates of communities rise and fall in proportion to the rise and fall of the quantity of stimulants in use. page 22 Thus in London in 1729, when a law was passed facilitating the sale of liquors, the death-rate reached 29,722. By way of remedy an Act was carried increasing the duty, when in two years the death-rate was only 26,761—or a decrease of 2,961,—while in two years more the rate diminished by 6,364; and we must remember that while the death-rate was so markedly decreasing the population was otherwise very largely increasing. On the original Act being repealed, intemperance largely increased, and the mortality from 23,358 rose to 29,258. On account of scarcity of grain in 1757-58, distillation was stopped for three years, when the mortality decreased in one year by 3,793. In 1760 distillation was resumed, and the mortality increased by nearly 2,000 during the following year. The mortality in 1800 was 23,068; in 1801, there being another scarcity of grain, it decreased by 3,692. We may gather very important data from the records of Insurance Associations as to the effect of alcohol on the duration of life. In the Temperance and General Provident Institution the actual number of claims expected were from 1871-75 inclusive—i.e., five years,—abstainers, 723; general, 1,266. The claims that actually fell in were—abstainers, 511; general, 1,330. Can anything speak plainer than this? Nearly double the number of deaths are as a matter of fact expected in the general section, and the actual number exceeds the calculation made; and we have to bear in mind that of the insurances classed under the heading "general," many—in fact the majority—were very moderate drinkers. If you want further proof of the extraordinary effects of alcohol on the duration of life, you will find any amount in the Transactions and Records of Insurance Societies. An Edinburgh magistrate, Mr. Lewis, said in 1881:—"So frequent have premature deaths become among publicans, that one of the most prosperous and most popular Assurance Associations in the kingdom (The 'Scottish Widows' Fund') has issued a circular to all its agents instructing them that on no account were the lives of publicans to be insured." The "General Insurance" office issued like instructions two or three years ago.

Let us now turn from this effect of alcohol (death) to that which is but a shade less grave—viz., Insanity. Insanity is the most terrible affliction which can befall a human being. I will not describe its fearful consequences to the outside world and the unhappy subject. Doubtless you are most of you acquainted in some degree with the effects of this direful disease. It is here, alas! no stranger. It was, however, otherwise where I was born and spent nearly half of my life-time. In a population of nearly 27,000, I heard of but two madmen, and never saw either of them. One case was caused by drink. There were, of course, several "naturals"—innocent creatures born in a state of hopeless idiocy. Among these thousands of people I believe there were no more than ten inns, and they were situated many miles apart. There was no Lunatic Asylum There were many poor people, but very few paupers Until a few years ago there was no Poor-house or Benevolent Institution, and when the Workhouse was built it lacked inmates. Theft was almost unknown. I saw but one thief to my knowledge, though I have heard of one or two more; no doubt there were a few more. There was a policeman to a parish of, say, 5,000 inhabitants. I never heard of there being three criminals in the little jail. Drunkenness was very uncommon, habitual tippling infrequent, and confined, perhaps by necessity, to the better classes. Such was the case some twenty years or more ago in one of the Western Islands of Scotland, at present the subject of so much debate. But I must return from this digression to the subject proper.

As surely as we have found that there is an intimate connection between the amount of strong drink used in a community and the death-rate—the death-rate rising and falling in a most sensitive manner in proportion to the amount of strong drink used—so surely shall we find the same intimate affinity between the increase of insanity and the increase in the use of ardent spirits. This is no mere chance coincidence; it is absolute cause and effect, as has been abundantly proved by many independent observers in all parts of the world.

In Russia, in 1863, the liquor traffic was thrown open—that is, there were much greater facilities afforded for procuring drink. Upon this the number of cases of delirium tremens in some hospitals was doubled, and in others increased threefold. Now, delirium tremens is an attack of acute madness, curable in most instances, but owing to the weakness of will and purpose left behind, relapses are the rule, in too many instances the end is general paralysis and idiocy, or some form of madness in which, the finer portions of the nervous system having been permanently damaged, recovery is rendered hopeless for the mind. There are many instances, however, in which the animal system regains much of its former force, and a condition of bodily health is restored. I have seen such cases, and anything more deplorable it would be impossible to witness. Picture to yourself the finished gentleman, the accomplished scholar, reduced to a gross, powerful animal, lower in the intellectual scale than the beasts of the field; harmless, it may be, it may be as ferocious as a beast of prey, with not unfrequently a development of cunning scarcely surpassed by the most accomplished Machiavel; with increased force of passions, distortion of all moral sentiment, dead to shame and modesty, revelling in revolting filth, given to foul or blasphemous language: such a living wreck of fallen humanity standing before you, the most appalling spectacle that ever darkened the eye of man! And this is a specimen of the handicraft of habitual intemperance. Do you loathe the object? No, you dread it. It seems to be speaking to you from another and lower world. Its language is unmistakeable, its meaning clear, but it is no man or woman you see before you. You see embodied an appeal to your higher nature to obey its purer promptings to avoid the crooked path—selfish self-indulgence—which leads to debasement and crime, which deprives life of all that is worth living for, combined with a threat of the consequences which follow, as the night the day, on the footsteps of those who in their sensual self-indulgence are a law unto themselves. Here is a living demonstration of the truth of those great moral maxims to which no one here is page 25 a stranger. Although the living body which you see before you may be able to discharge with perfection all the functions necessary to animal life, the soul, the moral, the accountable man is sick unto death—in delirium perhaps—perhaps in a state of moral coma, which will end only in moral death. And this; is this all his own fault? Emphatically no! How many causes combined in almost every case to produce this awful state, who can tell, who knows? Did he get it from his father's blood? Did he get it from his mother's milk? Has he fallen a victim to fashion, to his vanity, to his dislike to appear "peculiar," his inability to say "no," or must he blame his doctor? We are but parts of a whole, parts of our surroundings; we cannot hurt ourselves without hurting others. We act and react on each other. If one member of the body social is morally sick, the whole body suffers more or less according to the importance of the ill member, the function he has muddled, and which it was his duty to help to discharge. This is a truth the most neglected even when recognised, and the least considered in our actions. Yet, as Chesterfield says, "If people had no vices but their own, few would have so many as they have. I would sooner wear other men's clothes than their vices; they would suit me just as well." There are people, particularly young people, the victims of a facility which makes it difficult for them to refuse anything asked of them, a feeling which makes them ashamed to shun an ambition to shine in company, which often causes the commencement of a habit disagreeable at the first, but which strengthens with time, and ultimately may lead to such a condition as that we have been considering, Now, this I would impress upon you, that of all youths the most willing to please, the kindest-hearted stands in the greatest danger from trifling with intoxicants. This facile phase of his nature is a weakness which will dangerously increase in force and influence until the unfortunate individual ultimately becomes the mere plaything of his surroundings. Ask him to drink a glass or two of beer, he will do it in a minute. Yes, he will sell his liberty by forging a cheque; he will borrow to lend; he will steal to please.

I do not know how I have betrayed myself into this long digression, but I hope you will overlook the offence, for I do not wish to pose before you in any character save that of a doctor who ought to know something of the subject on which he is speaking. I have told you that with the increase of the use of alcoholic drinks insanity marvellously increases in direct ratio. In France, according to Mr. Zunier, during the twenty years between 1849 and 1869 the consumption of alcohol doubled and the cases of in sanity increased by 52 per cent., and in addition to this the number of cases of suicide increased.

Insanity is enormously on the increase. In Great Britain, during the two last decades it has doubled. But we must not conclude that alcohol is entirely to blame for this alarming fact; for our present mode of life has many new features different from what the human body and mind have been accustomed to, and if things go on as they do, by the law of survival of the fittest, a race must succeed us differing from us, and tending to differ still further, in various qualities of mind and body, some of which will certainly not be of a very desirable nature,—such for instance, as are likely to result from the unreasonable training of the infantile child, the herculean attempts at impossible mental results; the feverish hurry to get rich, or the anxious wearing strain to keep body and soul together and appear to be respectable. Changes of clime and occupation, severance of family ties, lessening of family affection, living by mechanical rules, the conversion of man into a machine, vain endeavours to know the unknowable, foolish following of religious phantoms, striving for ecstatic states of mind, and what not, all help to wear out the mental gear, to disarrange it in its most delicate mechanism, and to produce effects at which even the most accomplished and most earnest student can merely guess. One thing is certain, and already proved—viz., that insanity is on the increase, and that the poetry in the individual life is getting somewhat languid, and romance giving place to the commonplace, wonder at almost anything lessening.

In Great Britain there are from two to three insane per- page 27 sons to the thousand. The percentage credited to alcohol varies in the statistics of the various districts and countries There are so many difficulties in the way of arriving at a correct history of individual cases that we can at best gain an approximate idea. But, upon the whole, I am led to think that I err upon the safe side in telling you that one-third of the cases are due, directly or indirectly, to the abuse of stimulants. Lord Shaftesbury, permanent chairman of the Lunacy Commission, emphatically declares that the vice of drunkenness has to account for over one-half the cases, and at this rate there are about 50,000 insane individuals in the United Kingdom at this time, necessitating an expenditure of over two and a-half millions yearly. This sum, I suppose, is not placed opposite the duty, &c., in the annual balance-sheet. To show you how difficult it is to rely absolutely upon lunacy returns as to the actual number of insane who owe their malady to alcohol, I will give you a table such as is commonly used in statistical accounts of the kind under consideration. Here is one of these tables, which gives a classification of those in the asylum:—

Ill health	1533
Intemperance	554
Grief at loss of friends	308
Puerperal state	392
Loss of property	413
Religious excitement	526
Domestic trouble	565
Disappointment in love	211
A filthy habit	357
Total	4859

This is a classification of the patients in three United States asylums.—See Hargreaves' prise essay on Alcohol.

Here you see drink is credited 554. But how about those classified under ill health? Many may have been constitutionally undermined by drink before becoming mad; and as to loss in business and domestic trouble, and even page 28 love itself, how are we to estimate abuse of drink as a factor in producing these conditions? We cannot deny that the habitual abuse of drink is incompatible with the conduct of of sound business on anything like a large scale. As to domestic happiness and habitual vice of any kind, we have to say no lets certainly that they cannot abide under the same roof.

I may remark, in passing, that the fact of religious excitement being the cause of 11 per cent, of the total of 4859 claims very serious attention; but, as you know, matters connected with religion are very delicate and difficult of handling, and a question which even the greatest legislators approach with fear and trembling, and, therefore, with this remark we will dismiss the subject.

From what you have heard you will have no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that half the lunacy in Britain is preventible. What a thought! In lunacy cases where the mind is not entirely unhinged, its machinery is, however, often deranged; the lower characteristics, pure animalism bud into luxuriance; the moral vision becomes distorted, what we call "moral principle" dies, and the only brake that can be used to steady the incurable cancer is slavish fear of consequences. Even this gradually narrows itself down until at last the cat and the noose are the only objects terrible to the God-forsaken wretch. People of this description compose our criminal classes. I will devote a little time to the question of the connection between alcohol and crime.

Under the heading of crime, I will first draw your attention to the subject of suicide. There is some difficulty in placing this crime, or action, or whatever else you may call it. In times not long past it was unhesitatingly considered a most disgraceful crime, albeit so many of the very flower of humanity have been guilty of self-immolation. The matter now does not engage so much attention; the unfortunates are no longer buried at four cross-roads, transfixed with a stake. New Zealand juries have, to their own satisfaction, finally concluded that the act is the result of insanity. I shall be glad to leave it thus. Over-indulgence page 29 in drink often leads to such misery that the victim finally can no longer endure existence. The mind has been weakened, and lacks strength sufficient to bear the patient through the sea of troubles in which he finds himself all but overwhelmed. The idea of nothingness with its negative happiness is born, takes root, and matures; and the unhappy wretch takes poison in his last glass of wine, and thus finds refuge in death. In this country suicide is so very common that a case of self-destruction occasions no surprise and little comment; and I should imagine that, except in the case of young women, it would be difficult to put one's finger on a single instance unconnected with the effects of drink. Dr. Schlegel, speaking of drink, said at the beginning of this century "Drink is the principal cause of insanity and suicide in England, Germany, and Russia, of licentiousness and gambling in France, and of bigotry in Spain."

I entertain no manner of doubt as to the correctness of this extract. Error, if error there be, is on the side of under-estimate.

Heredity.—Terrible as are the results of intemperance to those who indulge, great as is their punishment in their own persons, the mischief does not unfortunately all end here. Defects of function, disease of mind and body, engrafted on the drinker's system, become the heritage of his offspring, as also do idiocy and obliquity of mind in many ways. In many instances the evil results end only with the destruction of all the descendants of the sire, which happens by the third or fourth generation. To trace the results of this inheritance with accuracy is impossible; but, on the whole, a sufficiently near approximate can easily be made. Should a family of topers defy beyond the fourth generation the ill effects of drink, it must be owing to the admixture of fresh blood from other families which have escaped the inherited penalties of alcoholic indulgence. The transmission of the injurious effects, mental and physical, to future generations might form the subject of a most interesting and instructive essay, but we must at present be satisfied with having thus casually touched upon it

All the material facts and views I have laid before you are mainly correct, and truly they contain much food for thought. We have found:—

That alcohol is not a food nor a drink.

That for a healthy person it is not necessary, particularly before 40.

That moderation does not exceed two ounces of alcohol daily.

That, as a rule, those who habitually take alcohol daily seldom or never keep to this quantity, and that it is immensely increased—even to twenty-fold—by men whom none would ever dream of calling drunkards.

That any amount over what is mentioned is hurtful in the long run, and if greatly surpassed shortens life by periods varying in proportion to the quantity used, and that the ingestion of a very large amount may kill in a few hours.

That it causes an enormous amount of disease.

That it is the most important factor in producing madness, idiocy, nervous diseases; and that its abuse is incompatible with domestic happiness.

That it calls into existence (at an earlier stage) diseases latent in the system, aggravates diseases from other sources, and unfits the mind and body for severe strains; the blood being poisoned also unfits the subject for operations, and retards the cure.

That it leads to the greatest share of crime.

That, when it does not destroy the mind, it weakens it by limiting its grasp, lessening its range of vision, disarranging its storehouse, mixing together the contents of the pigeon-holes of its office by destroying or disarranging the memory.

That it lessens the power of endurance in heat and in cold.

That it lessens when it does not quite paralyse the powers alike of mind and body.

That it alienates natural affections, clouds or even destroys the moral sense, until the victim scouts the very idea of responsibility, and glories in his shame—until, dead to every noble thought, to every inspiring aspiration—with-out the sense or power left even to loathe its own loathsomeness,—the wretched carcase lies before you slowly rotting in its own filth, mental as well as material—yet still living, if mere circulation of the blood be life. The man has perished, the carcase cumbers the ground, and but remains to be put out of sight.

Such is sometimes the end of the sad chapter which began with moderation.