MODERATE DRINKING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3737, 23 September 1886, Page 3

MODERATE DRINKING.

It is high timo to define what moderate drinking is not. It is not drinking m public houses ; it is not drinking on tho sly ; it is not drinking early m the (lay ; it is not drinking by itself at other than meal times ; it is not diinking to procure sleep or to relieve pain. All men, and especially all women, who do Buch things nre not moderate drinkers and had better beware. A moderate drinker takes a very limited quantity once or, at most twice a day, with food, such a quantity as docs not make him Btupid or even alcopy, such as leaves him cool and unexcited. The moderate drinker takes the lightest form of alcohol, and takes even these with care. Ho knows the power of alcohol to produco disease, and is on the look-ont for any indication of harm or excess. We do not think it proved that such persons become drunkards. It is terrible, however, to sco how soon a drunkard is made by thoughtless drinking, and how complete is his physical destruction often beforo he, or perhaps she, comes under medical notico. Jaundice, or dropsy, or albuminura, or delirium tremrii.i, may have been reached before friends, unwilling to admit what they fear, will send for a medical adviser and make a clean breast of it. Alongside nil tho tectotalism that exists, there is still an appalling amount of tippling which does not distinctly intoxicate butssturates the principal organs, and destroys thorn more quickly than an ordinary debauch. ] Rut, as we liaro sai 1, that is not moderate drinking— it is mortal drinking. — TlieLancel.