he practice of total abstinence from all
intoxicating drinks, being most conducive to health and
longevity of their patients, but very inimical to the pocket
interests of themselves, my own experience is, that my teetotal
patients are seldom ill, and that they get well very soon again,
if they are attacked by disease. A higher principle than that of
gain must influence a medical man's mind, or he will never
advocate the doctrine of total abstinence."--J. J. RITCHIE, M.
R. C. S., Leek.

"One of the most dangerous phases of the use of alcohol is the
production of a feeling of well being in weakly, dyspeptic,
irritable, nervous or anaemic patients. In consequence of the
temporary relief so obtained, the patient develops a craving for
alcohol, which in many cases can end only in one way, and, as I
felt compelled to tell an assembly of ladies a short time ago,
the very symptoms for the alleviation of which alcohol is
usually taken are those, the presence of which renders it
exceedingly desirable that alcohol should not be taken."--DR. G.
SIMS WOODHEAD, of London.

In an address upon the London Temperance Hospital delivered shortly
before his death, Sir B. W. Richardson gave a brief review of the
influences which led him to abandon the medical use of alcohol. The
following is taken from that address as reported in the _Medical
Pioneer_:--

"I was a member of the Vestry of St. Marylebone, and we had in
our parish a very serious outbreak of small-pox, attended with a
considerable mortality. In his report to us Dr. Whitmore stated
that in his treatment of earlier cases of the confluent and
hemorrhagic, and malignant forms of disease, stimulants of wine
and brandy were freely administered without any apparent
benefit; and, that after consultation with Mr. Cross, the
resident surgeon, they resolved to substitute simple
nutriments, such as milk, eggs and beef-tea, at frequent
intervals, with discontinuance of stimulants altogether. The
result of the change was most satisfactory, and many bad cases
did well, which under the stimulant plan they believed would
have terminated fatally. Again I was struck very much by a
report made by Mr. Cadbury, in which that gentleman showed the
course that was going on in various hospitals. The amount of
alcohol in twelve hospitals in London, taken by the inpat