Cheers
It is gratifying for those of us who enjoy the occasional social drink — or perhaps even more than the occasional social drink — to learn that no less substantial a body than the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare has come, as a result of studies carried out in places as far apart as Framington, Massachussetts and Alameda, California, to the conclusion that we are likely to live longer than those boring fellows the teetotallers. Much nonsense has been talked about the effects of alcohol — though far too little attention has been paid to the effects of abstention from this beneficial relaxer — but most of our supposed wisdom on the subject is returned as anecdote rather than statistical compilation. Beer stands well in the historical record: the man who, albeit temporarily, brought temperance to Ireland — one Father Matthew — merely persuaded his followers to abstain from spirits, while he encouraged them to support the advantages of hop derivatives. And Churchill, retorting to Montgomery's aphorism about never smoking nor drinking, but being 100 per cent fit, observed that he smoked too much and drank too much and was 200 per cent fit. In other words, our solemn American friends have merely told us what we have known all along. And besides, teetotallers are boring.
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