i86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



drinking. Before attempting to define the intrinsic value of 

 the two words, let me remind the reader that the mere use of 

 the term "moderate," when applied to anything whatever — 

 whether it be to walking exercise, or anything else — implies 

 that it is merely a relative and consequently a fluctuating quan- 

 tity, according to the capabilities of the individual and the cir- 

 cumstances of the case ; for a moderate walk to a weak person is 

 quite a different thing from a moderate walk to an athlete. So 

 the term " moderate drinking," when applied to a girl in her 

 teens, is something quite different from the term "moderate 

 drinking " when applied to a robust man. Consequently its in- 

 trinsic value is not to be measured by quantity, but by the 

 effects ; and fortunately, as every thinking being is capable of 

 doing this for himself, it is quite unnecessary for me to fix upon 

 any given quantity, but merely to say that by moderate drink- 

 ing I mean the indulging in alcoholic stimulants well within the 

 margin of intoxication. I shall, for the present, confine my re- 

 marks on the effects of moderate drinking to those more par- 

 ticularly observed on the four important and indispensable 

 organs of the body — namely, the liver, kidneys, heart, and 

 brain. 



Although all persons who indulge in alcoholic stimulants 

 well within the margin of actual drunkenness speak of them- 

 selves as " moderate drinkers," there are two special classes of 

 them which bear no resemblance to each other, except in the one 

 solitary circumstance that they never at any time take sufiicient 

 to intoxicate themselves. The one class is that which only par- 

 takes of stimulants while eating; the other indulges in them 

 between meal-times. To the latter habit is applied in this coun- 

 try the title of " nipping," while in the East it is spoken of as 

 "pegging." And this is the most pernicious of all forms of 

 drinking, from the fact that stimulants taken without at the 

 same time partaking of food, though only imbibed in small 

 quantities at a time, have most deleterious effects on the internal 

 organs. A man who habitually indulges in a single glass of 

 sherry in the forenoon, a brandy-and-soda in the afternoon, and 

 a glass of whisky-and-water in the course of the evening — for 

 reasons presently to be explained — does far more injury to his 

 constitution than one who partakes of a larger quantity of alco- 

 holic stimulants at meal-times. That this is not a mere ideal 

 opinion evolved from the realms of fancy, but one founded upon 

 an indisputable basis, I shall show by reference to the tables of 

 mortality furnished by the registrar-general in his annual re- 

 ports. As there, unfortunately, exist no especial tables of mor- 

 tality from this form of moderate drinking, I have adopted the 

 plan of estimating its effects on health by comparing the death- 



