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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-
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