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20
people at heart, must view with satisfaction, the progress that
lias been made by this movement, of late years, not only in
the lowest, but in all classes of society. Alcohol is not a
food, nor should it be an article of daily consumption. In
everyday life and in the healthy man, the functions of both
mind and body are better performed without its use. It is
only of value as a medicine and in certain conditions of the
system, but then it should be considered as a medicine; or
if, on the other hand, it is used as a daily beverage, it should
be acknowledged as an indulgence; when taken in increasing
quantities, like the morphia habit, it leads to an early
decrepitude. It appears to me, that the leaders of the temperance
movement, would be better advised, if, instead of
devoting the whole force of their energies, in declaiming
against the evils of alcohol, they should make it a first plank
in their platform, to obtain for the people, a cheap and pure
supply of water. The reformer should strain every fibre of
the temperance organization of the metropolis, to attain this
result, for assuredly, while the water supply of London, is
drawn from a river, whose waters arc polluted, in that part of
its course, which lies above the intakes of the Water Companies'
mains, by the excrement, and the washings of seventythousand
people, whatever amount of filtration the water
may undergo, the arguments of the temperance reformer
must be strong, indeed, if they induce the people to adopt
water as a daily beverage.
The death rate in the five great groups of districts is as
follows:—
West Districts 17.7 per 1000
North Districts 18.0 „
South Districts 19.2 „
East Districts 22.5 „
Central Districts 25.9 „