Modern medical opinions on alcohol : being a series of lectures delivered by well-known medical men.
- Date:
- [1911?]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Modern medical opinions on alcohol : being a series of lectures delivered by well-known medical men. Source: Wellcome Collection.
28/160 page 18
![THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND ALCOHOL [By Sip Victor Horsley F.R.S., F.R.C.S., &c.] At a large gathering of the consultants and medical practitioners of the Midlands, held at the Medical Institute, Birmingham, Sir Victor Horsley gave an address on the above subject, which was listened to with profound interest and approval. The chair was taken by Mr. J. Furneaux Jordan, who pointed out that the medical profession took a pride in checking diseases like diphtheria, and in fight- ing against everything that was bad for the health of the nation; but that they had failed to take a strong position with regard to the alcohol question, although the national health was deteriorated by that far more than by anything else. Sir Victor Horsley began by stating that we were all at one by wishing to check poverty, disease and crime, and that all medical men knew well that these were due in large part to the taking of alcohol by the people of this country. In reality, alcohol was the commonest cause of disease and death; but our statistics did not show how many deaths were due to it, because the true cause of death was, for social reasons, not always put down by the doctor. Moreover, indirectly, long before the toxic effect was developed in a man or woman, alcohol had begun to undermine the morality of their home, and to cause disease and vice in many serious ways. A great step in the cause of truth had been gained when the Home Secretary admitted in Parliament that alcohol was the commonest cause of crime.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28052808_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
