_Beverages._--Pure water, nature’s own gift, has ever supplied every legitimate need of the human race, but civilized life has greatly extended its list of drinks, much to its own detriment. Soda water, whiskey, beer, ginger ale, tea, coffee, and chocolate represent enormous industries, and probably all do more harm than they do good. Much inventive genius in the Nineteenth Century has been bestowed upon the soda water fountain, on stills, and processes for aging liquors and processes for brewing beer, on cider and wine presses, on bottling machines and bottle stoppers, on devices for carbonating waters, and in coffee and teapots. The trend of the times is shown in the following figures, which represent the per capita consumption of beverages in the United States for 1898: tea, .91 of a pound; coffee, 11.45 pounds; wines, .28 of a gallon; distilled spirits, 1.10 gallons; and malt liquors 15.64 gallons. The largest per capita increase since 1870 has been in malt liquors, and the next in coffee. In tea and distilled spirits there has been a decrease, while the consumption of wines is the smallest of all and has varied but little. CHAPTER XX. MEDICINE, SURGERY, SANITATION. DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD BY HARVEY--VACCINATION BY JENNER--USE OF ANÆSTHETICS THE GREAT STEP OF MEDICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY--MATERIA MEDICA--INSTRUMENTS--SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE--DENTISTRY --ARTIFICIAL LIMBS--DIGESTION--BACTERIOLOGY, AND DISEASE GERMS-- ANTISEPTIC SURGERY--HOUSE SANITATION. In the early gropings through the uncertain light of first progress, man was accustomed to ascribe the ills of his flesh to the anger of the gods, and in his craven and abject superstition made peace offerings. Later he learned to locate the cause within himself, and constructed the theory that the fluids of the body had become disordered. The characteristic feature of progress in the Nineteenth Century, in this field, has been in the accurate tracing of the relation of cause and effect, and with the discovery of true causes has grown efficient means of treatment. The old expedients of charms, incantations, conjuration and exorcism gave place first to intelligent medication, and this in turn is rapidly giving way to the prevention of disease by improved conditions of sanitation and right living. The ounce of prevention has been found to be worth more than the pound of cure. With the improved knowledge of physiology, anatomy, chemistry and biology, which the century has brought, the intelligent physician was able to make a logical and for the most part a correct diagnosis, but supplemented with the microscope, that great revealer of the unseen world of small things, corporeal existence itself becomes an open book, and from the principles of organic evolution to the germ theory of disease the mystery of life and death is being slowly revealed.