A temperate person’s | An intemperate person’s chance of living is—— | chance of living is—— | At 20 = 44·2 years. | At 20 = 15·6 years. ” 30 = 36·5 ” | ” 30 = 13·8 ” ” 40 = 28·8 ” | ” 40 = 11·6 ” ” 50 = 21·25 ” | ” 50 = 10·8 ” ” 60 = 14·285 ” | ” 60 = 8·9 ” The average duration of life after the commencement of habits of intemperance is—— Among mechanics, working and labouring men 18 years. ” traders, dealers, and merchants 17 ” ” professional men and gentlemen 15 ” ” females 14 ” Again, Dr Dickinson, writing “on the morbid effects of alcohol in persons who trade in liquor,” gave the results of an examination of 149 traders in liquor, as compared with 149 persons of various trades. The general results were diseases of the liver much more common in those who dealt in alcoholic drinks. In the lungs tubercle affected sixty-one persons of the alcoholic, forty-four of the non-alcoholic. Tubercle in the brain, liver, kidneys, spleen, bowels, mesenteric glands, and peritoneum were twice as common in the alcoholic as in the non-alcoholic. The verdict, therefore, is unavoidable that alcohol (in excess) engenders tubercle in the brain, inflammations, atrophy, hæmorrhages; in the heart and vessels atheroma, hypertrophy, and other affections, were all more common in the alcoholic than in the non-alcoholic series. The evidence in kidney disease did not appear so conclusive, but some forms of kidney disease appear to be increased. The author sums up thus:——“Alcohol causes fatty infiltration and fibroid encroachment; it engenders tubercle, encourages suppuration, and retards healing; it produces untimely atheroma, invites hæmorrhage, and anticipates age. The most constant fatty change, replacement by oil of the material of epithelial cells and muscular fibres, though probably nearly universal, is most noticeable in the liver, the heart, and the kidney.” Alcohol also seems to be the cause of special diseases, besides those more common and generally known ones, delirium tremens, alcoholism, &c. Of these we may mention one recorded by M. GALEZOWSKI, a peculiar affection of the eyes, which the doctor found very prevalent during the siege of Paris in 1870-1. In the five months of the siege fifty patients were affected by it, whilst during the twelve months preceding the siege only nineteen were to be found. Dr GALOWSKI ascribed the malady to the habit of taking alcoholic drinks in the morning fasting. A peculiar kind of palsy has also been referred to alcoholic poisoning. The following table, compiled by Dr Joseph Williams, lends support to the fact that an indulgence in alcohol is either the cause of insanity, or that it tends to its increase: Proportion Total caused by admission. intemperance.