There is another salt, a very valuable one, and one deservedly used in medicine, the double tartrate of soda and potash, called the Rochelle salt. This has a mild, not unpleasant, salty taste, and we all should know that it is one of the good things coming from the grape as a by-product in the art of wine-making.

England collects as taxes from spirits, wines and malt liquors, $449,820,000 per year. The United States collects $444,116,123. The French government at large only collects from these sources $102,-400,000 per year, but there are other taxes by cities and towns, just as we have in the United States, and are not included in the general government tax. Germany only collects directly $57,969,040.

The average German at home or abroad rebels when you tax his beer, for it is the mainspring of his pleasure, not only of his palate, but of his whole social life.

The old lady said to her son, who had left his American home to reside temporarily in Germany, "Henry, I hope you go to church on Sundays." "Yes, mother," said Henry. "Henry," said the good mother, "I trust you visit the parson now and again at his home." "That is not necessary, mother. I always meet and chat with him at the beer-garden on Sunday after service."

I think there is one thing we may truthfully say: The consumption of spirits as a beverage is gradually declining in this country, and that mania a potu is more and more becoming a rare disease. Such is my individual experience, and it has been and still is considerable, having been connected during much of my professional life with various eleemosynary and criminal institutions where such cases abound, and I have seen it in men and women of all colors and nationalities. The increased consumption of beer and wines accounts for much of the decrease of the consumption of spirits, and it looks to me as though the coming man would gradually cease to use spirits as a beverage, a condition greatly to be wished for truly. I think man begins to realize the fact that the consumption of spirits as a beverage is the greatest bane to his health and happiness. Instinct tells him this, just as instinct teaches the lower animals to avoid certain plants as poisonous.

The ancients invented spirits (probably the Arabians), and I mean by spirits the brandies, whiskies, rums, gins, and such, not the much less harmful malt liquors nor the mirth-provoking mellow wine. The ancients used these spirits as medicine alone. May we who live after them and may those who live after us gradually come to use them in no other way; and as medicine may we of the medical profession learn to guide and guard their use.

I add here an important table taken from an article in the University Medical Magazine for October, 1898, by Dr. B. Franklin Stahl. The table is by Roberts, and shows the retarding effects of wines and spirits on digestion, both peptic and salivary. Let me first quote from Stahl's conclusions, using his quotations from Chambers, Osier, and others.

"Wines and beers, a glass or two taken with a meal, will help gastric digestion. When consumed in quantities, as not infrequently used, a pint of claret or a large amount of beer, they retard digestion more or less. As to time of administration, they should be given with food, or a part in certain instances taken just before food. Osier says the man who drinks before noon is lost. As a beverage, I say, a man should postpone his libations until the dinner hour. Chambers says the laborer, whose limbs are stiff with his day's toil, and the brain-worker, who still more acutely feels the wear and tear of bread-winning, are not wasting the money they earn with which they buy a fair ration of beer or wine for their evening meal. The malt liquors are indicated as fattening agents, to stimulate digestion, and as mild tonics and stimulants. The spirituous liquors are required in acute illness, and are beneficial in old age. The wines are most useful in convalescence and in those cases where we are unable to give the stronger liquors, because of their unacceptability to the stomach. Furthermore, they have a fixed place in our dietetics. They are to be avoided in atheromatous conditions of the blood-vessels, and particularly in angina pectoris, from the free salts they contain, and this is why spirits are the drink of old age when the blood-vessels have deteriorated. Finally, considering some special conditions where selection must be made, it may be said that in anaemia, in conditions included under the term malnutrition, and in convalescence, you will do well to order a good claret, Burgundy, or Sauterne. The lighter wines of good quality are best for daily consumption for brain-workers who lead sedentary lives, and who need a digestive stimulant. You will hasten recovery in many by ordering a light luncheon, accompanied with wine, between meals. Gout is regarded by many as the child of port wine. Next in order as causative of gout comes champagne, especially the sweet wines. A gouty person should drink only the dryest of the dry champagnes. Then come sherry, Madeira, Burgundy, and malt liquors. Cider is almost as potent in its causation of gout as are the wines. Some differ from this assertion, as I have explained. Claret is almost the only safe wine in gout. I will say that water is safer and better than any of the alcoholics. In diarrhoea and dysentery you will find brandy of service, especially in the old. Claret, if sound, is also of value here; in Germany and France it is frequently used to the exclusion of water. Very little water the French and Germans drink, anyhow. In diabetes, claret is safest, but Burgundy, hock, or dry sherry, and some whiskey, will be found to agree. I would say, drop the sherry of all kinds, and confine the whiskey to those specimens not colored with caramel. In fever, if self-limiting and of moderate severity, alcoholic stimulants are not indicated until convalescence has been established, when they may be given with advantage. You may regard it as an indication for alcohol when the fever is very high from the outset, and the heart appears embarrassed, as shown by a weak or absent second sound. Chronic alcoholism, in nearly all instances, may be successfully treated without liquor. When it is required, it should be given in large doses. In liver disease alcohol is usually contraindicated. If demanded, claret or brandy, well diluted with aerated water, should be chosen. Insomnia is often relieved by mulled wine or by whiskey and hot water. Beer is also of service in this connection. I need hardly say there is danger of the formation of the habit under these circumstances, nor need I remind you that whiskey is best for the old. In consumption, if any liquors are used, the malt liquors are of service early, and spirituous liquors later in the disease. Remember that here, more than in almost any other disease, the digestion is of the greatest importance, and you will be governed entirely by the effect produced on the digestion."

The author will add here that the latest experience in the use of alcoholic drinks among consumptives condemns them as retarding digestion and doing in a great majority of cases more harm than good.

In chronic rheumatism and renal disease they may only be given when the demand is greater than the contraindication, and all the while the effect must be noted. Well-diluted spirits are best here. In scurvy malt liquors are especially serviceable, yet some do better on claret or spirits and water.