Alcohol, and its hereditary effects / by Henry Humphreys.

  • Humphreys, Henry.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alcohol, and its hereditary effects / by Henry Humphreys. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ALCOHOL, AND ITS HEREDITARY EFFECTS. By henry HUMPHREYS, M.A., M.D., M.R.C.P., Physician to the Children's Hospital, Pendlebury. IHAVE the honour, this evening, to deliver the first of the series of lectures provided by the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association for the forthcoming winter. The object of the series is to spread, as far as possible, amongst the people some knowledge of the conditions under which health can be secured and maintained, of the ways in which disease is caused and fostered, and of the means by which disease may be prevented. That a large proportion of the cases of disease which the medical man is called upon to treat can be easily prevented there is no doubt. Of this I am frequently reminded in the course of my work at the Dispensary for Sick Children with which I am connected. More than half the cases I saw there this morning were those of derangement caused by improper food or improper clothing. A litde knowledge on the part of the parents would have prevented those disorders entirely. But among all kinds of preventable diseases, those produced by intemperance in the use of alcoholic drinks hold a pre-eminent place. No agent is known which is so destructive to human life as this. People are dying every day poisoned by it. The actual mortality cannot be ascertained from any known returns, but various estimates have been given by those who have specially studied the subject. Dr. Hardwicke, the coroner for Central Middlesex, whose field of observation is very large, places the yearly mortality from alcohol as high as 100,000.' But however large the number of deaths may be, they would represent but a small portion of the evils produced by intemperance; for where one