HEALTHY MODERNS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 899, 17 February 1930, Page 9

HEALTHY MODERNS

BAD DRINKING HABITS IN OLD DAYS

COCKTAILS UNDESIRABLE Times Cable. Reed. 11 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. "Many health problems remain, but the English are more sober, healthier, and live longer, presenting an amazing transformation compared with a century ago,” said Sir George Newman, the Health Ministry’s medical expert, giving evidence before a licensing commission. He surveyed London's drinking habits of two centuries ago. and recalled that from 1720 to 1770 deaths exceeded births owing to an orgy of spirit-drinking when gin was "a real grand destroyer.” There was a public-house for every 47 people, and tavern signposts invited people to get drunk for a penny, and dead drunk for twopence. There was straw on which to sleep off intoxication free. He added that scientific evidence did not exist to prove that alcohol fortified resistance. No great surgeon could be better for alcohol. Sir George Newman expressed the opinion that before-dinner cocktail drinking was undesirable from a medical viewpoint. Alcohol mortality figures were the highest among innkeepers. cabdrivers, and brewers. Alcoholism rendered its victims more susceptible to pneumonia and tuberculosis. He believed that the American idea of a half-yearly medical ove--haul was undesirable.