nerve-centres as drinkers. Partial or general paralysis,
locomotor ataxia, epilepsy and a host of other nervous
disorders, are directly traceable to the use of alcohol."

One of the visiting physicians of Bellevue Hospital, New York, states
that at least two-thirds of all the diseases treated there originated in
drink.

Dr. W. A. Hammond: "It is of all causes most prolific in
exciting derangements of the brain, the spinal cord, and the
nerves."

CHAPTER IV.

TEMPERANCE HOSPITALS.

THE LONDON TEMPERANCE HOSPITAL.

In 1865 Dr. S. Nicholls, medical officer of the Longford Poor-law Union,
published a report of the results of non-alcoholic treatment of disease
as practiced by him for sixteen years in the institutions under his
control. The figures for 1865 were:--

ADMITTED. RECOVERED. DIED.

Fever, 142 135 7
Scarlatina, 33 30 3
Small-pox, 48 47 1
Measles, 8 8 0
--- --- ---
231 220 11

_The treatment was altogether without wines, spirits or alcohol in any
form._

The death-rate reported by Dr. Nicholls was so small that some of the
more observing and progressive physicians were led by it to begin
similar experiments in the disuse of alcohol in other hospitals. Among
these was Dr. James Edmunds, senior physician at the Lying-In Hospital,
London. The experiments continued a year with a reduced death-rate
among both mothers and children. But the great brewers of London, who
contributed largely to the support of this hospital raised such a storm
of opposition to the discontinuance of alcoholic liquors that the
experiments had to be abandoned.

The establishment of a temperance hospital was now suggested, and in
October, 1873, a temporary institution was opened in Gower Street,
accommodating only seventeen in-patients at one time. Later a fine site
was secured on Hampstead Road, and in 1881 the east wing and centre were
opened by the Lord Mayor of London. In 1885 the west wing was finished,
and the opening ceremonies conducted by the Bishop of London.

At the time of the launching of this enterprise, wine and spirits were
literally "poured into" sick persons, with frightful results.
Death-rates were enormo