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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL POSITION OF ALCOHOL. 
By Dr. RICHARDSON, F.R.S. 
A T the present moment, the “Alcohol Question,” as it is 
called, is, in various ways, one of the most anxious sub- 
jects of out-door controversy. The leaders of the temperance 
movement, seeing the tide that was once against them hesi- 
tating, if not turning in their favour, are redoubling their 
efforts with a certain improvement of method which bodes 
better for them and their works : the politicians are beginning 
to consider the solution of the problem of the successful 
management, by Act of Parliament, of the “ habitual drunkard : ” 
the statist is re-collecting and revising his tables on the influ- 
ence of alcohol upon the health, the wealth, and the vitality 
of communities : the actuary is learning that, with an advance 
of temperance, his calculations may require amendment : the 
people resident in quiet and respectable villages, or in sections 
of great cities and towns, are silently but surely conspiring 
against that old institution, the public hostel, and that older 
of institutions still, “ mine host ” of the hostel : the chemists 
are busy with their analyses of wines, beers, and spirits, and are 
charged with subtle arguments on the question whether the 
animal body, by its living force, can turn alcohol into new and 
different products of the organic series : and lastly, but by no 
means leastly, the doctors are making clean breasts on the subject 
of their dealings with alcohol in the sick room, in a strain which 
partakes rather of sentiment than of reality, or of that serene 
judgment and reflection so becoming to the professional mind. 
In the midst of this singular revolution of thought and of re- 
velation of fact against the use of alcohol, it is, I had almost 
said, appalling to observe how its use extends. What is protest 
in theory is met by counter-protest in practice. Is theory or 
practice false ? That is the question. 
The answer I shall try herewith to give to that question 
shall consist of fact and suggestion. I have no part in mere 
controversy. I have tried by experiment and experience to 
