thirty-sixth, with nephritis and pleuropneumonia; and 1 on the
forty-sixth, with otitis and meningitis.

"All the cases have been treated without alcohol either as food
or drug, although many have been of great severity with various
complications. It is certain that the absence of alcohol has not
been detrimental, since the mortality is less than three-fourths
of that of the mortality among all notified cases in England and
Wales. I am bound to say that it is my firm conviction that had
alcohol been given in the usual fashion, the death-rate would
have been higher. Cases have been admitted to which alcohol has
been given previous to admission, apparently with harm, as they
have improved without it. One case was particularly noticeable
in this respect. A child, aged 6, had had a good deal of whisky,
and was supposed to be dying when admitted on the fourth day of
the disease, so that the doctor who had seen it was surprised,
when he called the following day to inquire, to find it was
still alive. Without a drop of alcohol it began to improve and
made a good recovery. I may say that delirium is very rare, even
in the worst cases treated non-alcoholically."

Dr. Norman Kerr says:--

"In my paper on 'The Medical Administration of Alcohol,' read to
the section of medicine at the Sheffield meeting in 1876, I
cited several medical testimonies in favor of non-alcoholic
treatment of fevers, notably that of my friend, the late Dr.
Simon Nicolls, who had a mortality of less than 5 per cent. in
230 cases.

"The record of the results of a greatly lessened administration
of alcohol in the treatment of smallpox in the London hospital
ships, is of deep interest. Having been requested to inquire
into the effects of this diminished alcoholic stimulation on
mortality and convalescence, Dr. Birdwood stated that though the
gravity of the cases had increased, with a mortality of 15 per
100 in the metropolis, the ship's death-rate had remained at
less than 7 per 100. Convalescence had been more rapid, and
there had been fewer and less serious complications from
abscesses and inflammatory boils. Other causes had contributed
to this improvement, but the medical officers attributed a
considerable share in the amelioration to a greatly diminished
prescription of alcohol."

The _Medical Pio