CAUSES OF DEATH.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1799, 8 October 1874, Page 2

CAUSES OF DEATH.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib, —It appears that much more has been made out of the death of the unfortunate man, John Drew, than was necessary. The event was sad enough, and the circumstances surrounding it sufficiently gloomy. The man happened to die in a public house, and therefore it is advanced by some as a very logical conclusion that he died from the effects of alcohol. It affords an opportunity for a slightly warm advocate of temperance to moralise upon the effect of drink generally and in the case before us in particular. There is not a particle of evidence to show that the man died from the effects of drink immediately; but that on -the con' trary (and as is frequently the case) unknown to himself the man sustained injuries of a very serious character which resulted in his death. „ That the death may have been accelerated by " the habitually excessive use of alcohol," may be admitted: but that the same result might have been induced by any other of the many abuses of the human system, must be admitted with equal readiness: therefore there is nothing to show that, in the the present case (and all such cases), drink is the agent of death. Excessive drinking is an evil which flourished in days past, when in certain circles it was deemed an accomplishment, and is one that must be ever regretted; but it is l>y no means the worst of the evils which infest this generation. There are customs and practices which are more wide spread in their influences, and more disastrous in their results than that of drinking, and to which the reformers of to-day would do well to direct their zealous attention.

Old Tom.