How Much the G.O.M. Drinks

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 169, 23 January 1888, Page 3

How Much the G.O.M. Drinks

Dr A. T. Sohofielb, of the National Health Society, delivered the last of a course of four lectures on the above subject in St Peter’s Lecture-room, Belsize Square, on November 17. The lecture was chiefly devoted to a consideration of the causes and cure of intemperance and a final consideration of the quostion as to whether alcohol continuously consumed in so-called moderate quantities was the friend or foe of man. Some interesting statistics wore given. Intemperance, said the lecturer, could not be considered as a crime ; it was distinctly and undoubtedly a disease, but by no means a disease that confined itself to the degraded part of mankind. There was no doubt that the question of intemperance was largely decided by race and climate. France contained on an average one wine shop to every ninety-five of her innabiftanta ; but while in the North of France thero was one to every fifty, in the South of France there was only one to every 150. Mr Herbert Gladstone had computed that his father drank no less than seven gallons of alcohol per year. That was by no means an excessive quantity for this country, but it would be impossible for Mr Gladstone to drink so much were he to live in Italy instead of England. One of the greatest causes of intemperance was poverty. There was no doubt that until the poor could find a better friend in those who had the power and heart to help them, they would stick to their old friend, although it might be an enemy in disguise alcohol. The other causes of intemperance were occupation, and bad and uncomfortable hemes. With regard to the external causes, excitement or depression conduced to excessive drinking, and also that which was equivalent to that terrible curse in the lower classes—via., worry. He deprecated the system of having homes for inebriates ; home influence, together with Christ’s influence, was far more effective. They could meet the evil of intemperance with three great factors —truth, sympathy in rescuing people, and the power of God in blessing the efforts put forth.