WINE AS A MEDICINE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2280, 19 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

WINE AS A MEDICINE.

A case came before the Westminster Police Court recently, when a claim for £8 floin a funeral fund was disputed by a temperance lodge, and the question arose whether a member of a temperance society, who takes an intoxicating drink prescrided lor him by his medical attendant, thereby forfeits his claim to the benefits of a society whose rules prescribe that its members shall abstain from all intoxicating drinks. It ■was stated that Dr. Gaven, the attendant of the deceased, sent to the lodge a certifi cate that the patient had had a bad attack of dysentery, and port wine was necessary. The wine was put in a, bottle, and" labelled "Medicine." The Magistrate thought the proposition that a man was to abstain from all intoxicants, under any circumstance, even perhaps at the cost of his life, was a monstrous one. The medical certificate, which was produced, stated that the deceased had been ordered wine as necessary for his medical treatment, to counteract the depression and weakness from which he suffered. The case was adjourned to enable the parties to come to terms : but no arrangement was come to, and the case is to be remitted to the County Court. — British Medical Journal.