ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 868, 25 October 1906, Page 21

ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE.

An analysis of the books of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, specially made on behalf of a “Westminster Gazette” representative, reveals the interesting fact that, while the consumption of almost every other kind of alcohol among the patients is on the decline, champagne appears to be making an attempt to get back to its 1892 high level. The daily average number of Bart. *s in-patients is rather higher than that of Guy’s, although the yearly total is given as 900 less 6721 against 8626 for last year. So that it is curious to find that, whereas the inn-patients at Guy’s Hospital, in 1905 consumed the modest total of about 100 gallons of beer, those in St. Bartholomew’s got rid of nearly nine times that quantity in the same period. In 1896 about 1494 gallons of beer were drunk—as near as possible if pints per patient (if the children and non-drinkers are included). For the purpose of reducing the following totals—which represent the cost for beer for Bart.’s in-patients alone in the various years—to gallons, it has to be remembered that 20s represents the value of a 26-gallon cask:—

So far as the consumption of beer is concerned, it will be seen that last year’s total is higher than any since 1899, when there was a considerable fall from the preceding year. There is therefore little in these figures to lead one to suppose that Bart.’s have quite lost faith in beer as an article of food. An instructive record is presented in a table which has been prepared at considerable trouble by the officials of the hospital, and shows at a glance the course of the alcohol thermometer at Bart.’s over the past twenty years. One of the more interesting facts brought out is the stationary character of the total number of in-patients dealt with during any of the past twenty years. It is shown that while port has lost favour with the physicians of this hospital, there is no very great reduction in the brandy bill. Whisky one may evidently regard as a negligible quantity; but claret shows a considerable advance over the first eighteen years under review.

The history of champagne at Bart.’s calls for a little special notice. Beginning with fourteen half-bottles for the year 1886, the total is raised to fifty-one half-bottles for the following twelve months, and to fifty-nine, sixty-nine, and sixty-two for the next three years. Then, in 1891, there is the record total for the whole twenty years of 213 halfbottles, with gradual falls to 174, 151, 120, and 65 immediately afterwards. In 1896, the total leaps up again to 103 half-bottles, to be followed by a drop of 95 in the year following. In 1898 the total is raised once more to 163 halfbottles, and thereafter up to and including 1904, the yearly totals recorded are 120, 56, 96, 140, 98, and 96 half-bottles respectively. And for the year 1905 the return is no half-bottles. Champagne figures at Bart, ’s certainly do not help Sir Victor Horsley’s argument very much. Gin, rum, and sherry, by the way, have been so little used throughout this long period of years as to make a layman almost curious to know for what kind of patients those stimulants are really prescribed. In conversation with one of the physicians at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, the “Westminster” representative was informed that alcohol was principally prescribed there in extreme cases of pneumonia and typhoid fever. “It is quite true,” he said, “that between twenty and thirty years ago the doctors prescribed alcohol in fever cases much too freely; but I still maintain that for; emergency cases of pneumonia and typhoid fever alcohol cannot be adequately (replaced by any other drug at our disposal.” “And dietetically, doctor—would you consider it harmful to drink silcohol with your meals?” —“Certainly not,” he answered. “Nor would any other healthy man, I should imagine. Yes; I have read the statement attributed to Dr. Woodhead, that alcohol is an| enemy to phagocytes. Of course Dr. j Woodhead knows more about that subject than I, but, if his theory be correct] my own phagocytes must be in a very bad way!”

£ s. d. 1895 59 3 1 1896 0 1897 50 11 5 1898 54 8 1 1899 39 13 6 1900 35 10 3 1901 26 17 1 1902 5 i9°3 34 9 3 *904 34 I 2 11 1905 35 12 5