The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-09-01
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT.
No Physician Should Recommend
Beer,

No Physician Should Recommend
Beer.
- Of all the villainous mixtures which
man takes into his stomach, lager Qay-
ing) beer is the most injurious. : The
lager beer sold in our large cities is not
beer at all, but chemical mixture Of
water. alcohol, soap, aloes, and cannabis
indica of low grade. The bt er-drinker
is always subject to Bright's di: "a e, with
and without dropsy, and the chronic
beer -drinkcr is most pitiable object,
and made up of bloat and acne rosacea.
No conscientious ph! sician should rec
ommend beer. r.-Medical Summary.
EngIand's Drink Biil.
Once year the London Times makes
room for detailed statement of Eng
lands drink bill. That statement has
just appeared. It shows a reduction
from 1884, for last year, but not a re-
duction of character to encourage the
friends of temperance. For many years
the statement has been made by Mr..
William Hoyle, F. s. S., but this time
another member of the Statistical So
ciety, MIR. Dawson Burns, D. D., signs
his name to the report. The British ex-
penditure upon drink in 1885 was S616,
S43, 800, decrease of about SIS, coo, 600
from the preceding year. But Mr.. Burns
says: SIN regard to the causes of dimi-
mutton We must, fear, look to the con-
tinued-and in some quarters increasing
depression of trade, rather than to the
growth of thrift and temperance in the
country. With the removal of this de-
preston we should most probably find
the drink bill become heavier and it's
sequences become darker" This is a
reasonable inference from the statistics
of preceding years. The state of trade
in England always reflects itself in the
drink bill. Mr.. Burns gives the footing
from 1860 to 1885 inclusive, and they
show this very plainly.
In that quarter of century the drink
bill has mounted from s425, ,O0o, 900 to
s61e, 100000. Mr.. Burns says: 1.-THE
years of commercial prosperity brought
with them a vastly augmented expendi-
ture upon strong drink, and even when
that prosperity began to decline, the
special impetus that had been given to
drinking habits resisted for a time, and
yielded but slowly to the stress of dimin-
ishing resources" That is to say that
people began, by economiAing in other
directions, and only cut down the drink
expenditure when they were CONF oiled
to do so, even then continuing to con-
/ sumo largely. Of course the increase
between 1860 and 1885 is partly ac'
counted for by growth OF population,
but Mr.. Burns holds that, allowing for
this, the increase in the drink bill shows
decline rather than progress in tenn
pcrance. cit is clear" be says, "that
the amount of the National drink-bill
is still enormous, being equal to the
Nations expenditure for bread, butter
and cheese; is not far short of the rents
paid for farms and houses in the United
Kingdom; is three times the amount
spent for tea, sugar, coffee and cocoa,
and is six times the amount of expendi-
lure on linen and cotton goods" Taking
The families of the United Kingdom at
,ix millions, the gross expenditure for
drink in 1885 gives an average expeudi-
lure per family of s1O2.5O; or, reckon
Ing five persons to family, S2O.5O per
head. Of course, if those who do not
drink at all are subtracted, the average
8 very much greater, rising IN fact to
k17O per family of five persons.-Ns,O