In their evidence given before the Lords’ Committee on Intemperance, some of our leading professional men, as Dr. Burdon Sanderson, Dr. Brunton, and Sir William Gull, have all spoken of the value of alcohol as a medicine, giving their reasons for thus advocating its employment in the clearest and most explicit manner, and valuable information on the subject may be gained from various books and reports which have been published by perfectly disinterested critics, and even by those who are strongly biassed in favour of total abstinence.[370] As regards the use of alcohol in surgical cases, it is needless to say that its indiscreet application under such circumstances must be dangerous, without reference to its moral effects; but there, too, the best opinions favour its use in certain cases. They are well expressed by Mr. W. S. Savory, F.R.C.S., of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, in a letter to the author, which, with the writer’s sanction, he publishes verbatim, for it conveys at the same time moral sentiments concerning the use of alcohol which he holds in common with nearly all respectable practitioners in the present day. “Although,” he says, “I am willing to admit that in my opinion alcohol, in its various forms of wine, beer, and spirits, is often needlessly and recklessly prescribed in the practice of surgery, yet I am sure that we could not altogether dispense with its use without frequent disadvantage to our patients, and even the occasional sacrifice of life. In cases where stimulants are required, sometimes others, as certain drugs, might be substituted for those, either without loss or with positive gain; but, after full allowance is made for this, there must remain, I think, many instances in which alcoholic drinks largely promote recovery, and several in which the balance of life and death turns upon their prompt and judicious administration. When I reflect on the enormous evil of alcohol to the community—an evil in its physical and moral results beyond parallel—I wish with all my heart that I could, as a surgeon, say less for this most prolific parent of disease and crime.”