or two years,
and was finally narrowed down to the service of an eminent
physician who gave spirits freely in all cases of pneumonia from
their entrance to the hospital. The other visiting physicians
gave very little spirits, and only in the later stages. The
physician was skeptical of these statistics, but finally
consented to test them by giving up spirits practically in all
cases of pneumonia. This was continued for a year, and the
mortality went back to the average statistics. That physician
has abandoned alcohol as a food and a medicine, only in very
limited degree. He writes, 'My stupidity in accepting theories
and statements of others, concerning spirits, which I could have
tested personally, is a source of deep sorrow, and I do not know
but it could be called criminal. I certainly feel that
punishment would be just.'"

Brandy has been considered the great necessity in cholera, yet the use
of it and other alcoholics are known to expose people to greater danger
when this disease prevails.

The _Bulletin of the A. M. T. A._ is authority for the following:--

"During the epidemic of 1832, Dr. Bronson said: 'In Montreal
1,000 persons have died of cholera, only two of whom were
teetotalers.' A Montreal paper said: 'Not a drunkard who has
been attacked has recovered from the disease, and almost all the
victims have been at least moderate drinkers.'

"In Albany, N. Y., the same year, cholera carried off 366
persons above sixteen years of age, all but four of whom
belonged to the drinking classes. Packer, Prentice & Co., large
furriers in Albany, employed 400 persons, none of whom used
ardent spirits, and there were only two cases of cholera among
them. Mr. Delevan, a contractor, said: 'I was engaged at the
time in erecting a large block of buildings. The laborers were
much alarmed, and were on the point of abandoning the work. They
were advised to stay and give up strong drink. They all
remained, and all quit the use of strong drink except one, and
he fell a victim to the disease.' He says also: 'I had a gang of
diggers in a clay bank, to whom the same proposition was made;
they all agreed to it, and not one died. On the opposite side of
the same clay bank were other diggers who continued their
regular rations of whisky, and one third of them died.'

"In New York City there w