Mayville, Ohio, May 16, 1899.
To the Editor:
—In the face of the knowledge we have of alcoholism, through the investigations of Norman Kerr and others whose opinions we have reason to respect, a recent editorial in the Medical Record and contributions with a similar trend in various journals are a little surprising. Although the domain of the physician is not the teaching of ethics, he is not true to his high calling who advocates that which, to a mind imbued with the first principles of altruism, is impossible and irrational. If it were practicable, I wish Dr. Bowditch could obtain the number of those who, contemporaneous with the "leading men" embraced in his statistic report, have made wrecks of life and fortune by making the effort to be occasional drinkers or regular moderate drinkers. And it would be interesting to know how many of his "leading men" have sclerotic