Human Physiology. 45 



Home-brewed ale and cider do not come into this account ; 

 and it is estimated that England and Wales drink 700,000,000 

 gallons of beer. Cider, as is well known, is drunk in several 

 counties by the agricultural labourers in enormous quantities, 

 and with the most deplorable consequences. 



The spectacle of drunkenness in many of the large towns of 

 England is one that can never be described or forgotten. 

 Visit the public houses of any populous district of London at 

 10 to ii o'clock on Saturday or Sunday night, and see the 

 crowds of men and women far advanced in intoxication. Stand 

 in Liverpool where street crosses street, with a flaring public 

 on each of the four corners, each full, and its doors surrounded 

 by such men and such women as the pencil of a Hogarth 

 or a Cruikshanks could alone depict. 



In one recent year, 94,908 persons were prosecuted before 

 Justices in England for drunkenness, of whom 22,560 were 

 females. But it is well known that none are ever arrested for 

 merely being drunk. They must be "drunk and incapable," 

 or "drunk and disorderly;" friendless as well, for the police 

 do not trouble those who have friends to take care of them. 

 In the single town of Liverpool there are usually from 100 to 

 150 cases of drunkenness brought before the magistrates every 

 Monday morning, and sometimes twenty of these have been 

 boys and girls under seventeen years of age. Processions of 

 drunken boys and girls are not unknown to the streets of 

 Manchester. The drunken cases in Liverpool are i in 33 of 

 the population; in Shields, i in 45; in Sunderland, i in 95. 

 In such places children go drunk to school ; women pawn or 

 sell every stick of furniture and rag of clothing, and even their 

 hair, for drink. In one court in Liverpool all the women were 

 found drunk one Sunday afternoon, and the children club all 

 the pennies they can beg or steal and get drunk like their 

 parents. Thousands of births are never registered, the chil- 

 dren being "sided" overlaid by their mothers, swelling the 



