(To THE EDITOR or THE " SFECTETOIL.") $IR,—A constant reader
of the Spectator is getting very tired ef the "Down. Glasses," Prohibition, Alcohol and Food, &o., &c., agitation. Can't the matter be settled some way, or leave it alone? We have the facts as to the effects of alcohol on the Human system. A properly attested Swedish experiment showed that soldiers who had imbibed only a very small, almost negli- gible, amount of alcohol made three hits in thirty shots at a target. The same men when they had teetotally abstained on another day made twenty-four hits in thirty. The German Professors Bergmann, Kraepelin, and others, who are exact, whatever else they may be, have shown that if the office clerk takes only so much as one glass of beer daily his efficiency is lowered by seven per cent. Nor can the drinking man stand heat or cold so well, smell so well, or hear so well as the non-drinker. That's all reason enough. These are critical times, and drastic measures may be necessary. The mental and physical evil effects (beneficial effects are always forgotten by Pro-writers) of alcohol have thus been tested and proved, and can be no longer doubted. Yet I fear if you deprive people of wholesome liquor you may drive them to the drug habit, or worse. Teetotalers, of course, demoralize themselves who bind themselves (poor, timid creatures!) by oath, which they have no moral right to do. But that's another matter. The late Archbishop Magee said:
" I would rather see England drunk than sober and a nation of
slaves! " So say I.—I am, Sir, &c„. Taos. S. CASSON. United Service Club, Edinburgh.
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