CHAPTER VI 



THE DEATH-RATE FROM ALCOHOL 



Alcohol highly esteemed anciently as a medicine — Less 

 esteemed to-day — The statistics of Insurance and Friendly 

 Societies — Estimates by medical men. 



From time immemorial, all kinds of medicinal virtues 

 have been attributed to alcohol. It has been 

 termed the "water of life." Almost as often as 

 new solutions of it — that is, new ways of manu- 

 facturing and flavouring it — have been discovered, 

 men have rejoiced as at the birth of an heir- 

 apparent. The jubilation has generally been 

 directly proportionate to the prevailing ignorance. 

 Many cordials were manufactured anciently by 

 religious bodies, and saintly discoverers were sup- 

 posed to have endowed them with miraculous 

 properties. We read how wounded and fainting 

 knights-errant were by them revived and fired with 

 a new fervour for battle. At the present day we 

 should perhaps suspect Dutch courage. But it is 

 a scoffing and sceptical age, the feet of which trend 

 to perdition. The belief in particular solutions of 



