Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/198

186 drinking. Before attempting to define the intrinsic value of the two words, let me remind the reader that the mere use of the term "moderate," when applied to anything whatever—whether it be to walking exercise, or anything else—implies that it is merely a relative and consequently a fluctuating quantity, according to the capabilities of the individual and the circumstances of the case; for a moderate walk to a weak person is quite a different thing from a moderate walk to an athlete. So the term "moderate drinking," when applied to a girl in her teens, is something quite different from the term "moderate drinking" when applied to a robust man. Consequently its intrinsic value is not to be measured by quantity, but by the effects; and fortunately, as every thinking being is capable of doing this for himself, it is quite unnecessary for me to fix upon any given quantity, but merely to say that by moderate drinking I mean the indulging in alcoholic stimulants well within the margin of intoxication. I shall, for the present, confine my remarks on the effects of moderate drinking to those more particularly observed on the four important and indispensable organs of the body—namely, the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain.

Although all persons who indulge in alcoholic stimulants well within the margin of actual drunkenness speak of themselves as "moderate drinkers," there are two special classes of them which bear no resemblance to each other, except in the one solitary circumstance that they never at any time take sufficient to intoxicate themselves. The one class is that which only partakes of stimulants while eating; the other indulges in them between meal-times. To the latter habit is applied in this country the title of "nipping," while in the East it is spoken of as "pegging." And this is the most pernicious of all forms of drinking, from the fact that stimulants taken without at the same time partaking of food, though only imbibed in small quantities at a time, have most deleterious effects on the internal organs. A man who habitually indulges in a single glass of sherry in the forenoon, a brandy-and-soda in the afternoon, and a glass of whisky-and-water in the course of the evening—for reasons presently to be explained—does far more injury to his constitution than one who partakes of a larger quantity of alcoholic stimulants at meal-times. That this is not a mere ideal opinion evolved from the realms of fancy, but one founded upon an indisputable basis, I shall show by reference to the tables of mortality furnished by the registrar-general in his annual reports. As there, unfortunately, exist no especial tables of mortality from this form of moderate drinking, I have adopted the plan of estimating its effects on health by comparing the