Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain: Beyond the Spectre of the Drunkard

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Recent studies of the temperance movement and the medicalization of alcoholism focus on the ‘devi... more Recent studies of the temperance movement and the medicalization of alcoholism focus on the ‘deviant’ drinking habits of the Victorian working classes. However most people in Victorian Britain were not viewed as ‘deviant’ drinkers or alcoholics. People of all social classes were in fact classed as moderate drinkers. Yet we know very little about the drinking habits of this 'silent majority'. Concepts of moderate drinking were as vague and controversial in the late Victorian period, as they are now. However, certain social groups were considered to be more ‘naturally disposed’ towards moderate consumption than others.

He is particularly interested in the way individuals construct personal values about their health and the implications of this for treatment, particularly in the management of chronic medical conditions. Mila Daskalova

The general hospitals throughout the country have very materially reduced their expenditure on alcohol in all its forms, but the general hospitals have not abandoned its use in toto … The class of cases in the union infirmaries [where no alcohol was prescribed] are exactly identical with those in the general hospitals. The workhouse medical officer has to treat pneumonia and other acute diseases and grave surgical operations are performed in many union hospitals. At the Leeds General Infirmary alcohol is used. Must we conclude that the staff of Leeds General Infirmary are wrong in continuing this agent? 12 Mara is in the third year of a practice-led PhD in Creative Writing and History of Medicine, funded by a University of Strathclyde faculty scholarship. Her interdisciplinary project investigates how historical fiction allows us to inhabit historical bodies, and what embodied narratives can tell us about women’s sexual and reproductive experiences in the period 1900-1950. The creative component is a novel, set in the Spring of 1948 as the UK’s health services headed towards nationalisation. It explores post-war politics, family and gender dynamics, and contemporaneous concerns around sex education and contraception. The accompanying dissertation expands on these themes, specifically interrogating representations of the female body and the medical gaze in early twentieth century literature and related historical fiction. Her analysis combines feminist criticism, narrative theory, and various body works. She is also using her historical research to feed into inter-disciplinary community engagement activities on the history of healthcare and writing the body. She became the face of Sweetheart Stout in 1958, inspiring the Lovelies, with Tennent’s acquiring the brand through a merger with Caledonian Breweries in the 1960s.

Venetia Stevenson, whose death aged 84 was announced on Tuesday, was one of the first women to appear on a beer can. Berridge V. 2013. Demons: Our Changing Attitudes to Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rachel has trained with the Scottish Oral History Centre and is now conducting oral history interviews across Scotland and the United States. Colin Moore There are of course habits and fashions in therapeutics as in everything else. Fashions in the past have sometimes been regulated by the prevailing theory of the origin of disease. In the days, for example, when diseases were set down to inflammation, bloodletting was all the vogue, and the use of alcohol was looked on as a perilous enormity. Then came the period when our bodily ills were ascribed to lowered vitality, and the stimulants were administered to therapeutic excess. At the present day, the bacterial origin of disease does not materially affect the employment of alcohol, which is generally given with judgment and discretion. 16A rally in Glasgow will be held tomorrow (19 September) in support of Scottish university and college workers on strike in disputes over pay. Dr Sturge believed that the general public was duped into buying and consuming tonic wine because they were either unaware of the alcohol content or believed that alcohol acted as a medium for the delivery of medicinal agents in the drink. There was no legal compulsion for manufacturers to disclose the alcohol content or ingredients in tonic wine on product labelling or advertising and these products fell into the category of ‘secret remedies’, which the committee defined as proprietary medicines where the labelling contained very little information on the contents and the product advertising made false or misleading claims. It was known that companies like Coleman and Hall made huge profits from the sale of their tonic wines and the issue that the committee had to consider was whether the public would continue to buy these products if they displayed accurate information on the alcohol content and added ingredients. The manufacturers claimed that by disclosing this information, their products would face increased competition, which would in turn harm their businesses. The key question for the committee was whether product labelling was in the best interests of consumers Graph 9.1: Glasgow Royal Infirmary alcohol expenditure from 1871 to 1914. The dates shown are those in which expenditure on alcohol was listed in the annual reports 21 Brian Howard Harrison (1994) Drink and the Victorians: the temperance question in England, 1815-1872 Mitchell T. 2004 . Intoxicated Identities: Alcohol Power in Mexican History and Culture: London: Routledge: p. 6.

Fiona Best, now 74, also spent time as a Tennent’s ‘Lovely’. Remembering Venetia’s legacy, she said: “She was a mother of the Lovelies, no doubt about it. Both articles aimed to educate doctors on the composition and therapeutic value of various types of French wines. This was achieved by providing chemical analyses of the four basic constituents of wines, namely alcohol, sugar, acid and tannin. The articles claimed that differing levels of each of these constituents not only altered the taste and quality of the wine but also its therapeutic value. 38 In the case of claret it was noted that there were huge differences in the quality and chemical composition of this particular type of wine but it was still believed to have medicinal applicationsThrough her research she discovered that although the models were often covered up on the front of cans for the home market, those sold to British servicemen stationed abroad showed a very different side to the cans.

I am also very keen to talk to women who had opinions about the cans or who may have campaigned against the cans as sexist marketing at the time."Dr Hands added that the project is still ongoing, stating that she hopes to use her research to create a future book entitled "Canned: Feminism - Sexism and Tennent's Lager Lovelies". In other words, the advent of germ theory did not radically change the role of alcohol in therapeutics. MacDonald believed that increased knowledge of the aetiology of disease meant that alcohol was prescribed more accurately and only when absolutely necessary. He argued that this change was not enough for the medical advocates of temperance reform who warned the profession to stop prescribing alcohol or face ‘the high road to therapeutic nihilism.’ 17 Which meant that by continuing to prescribe alcohol the medical profession risked doing more harm than good. MacDonald questioned the professional integrity of medical men who put their ‘extreme’ personal beliefs about temperance above their duty to patients. He cited an article published in The Lancet in 1908 written by a group of ‘well-known medical experts’ who expressed the view that alcohol was a ‘rapid and trustworthy restorative’ that in some cases could be a ‘life saving drug.’ 18 MacDonald believed that the majority of doctors shared these views Unsurprisingly, using sex appeal to sell beer was a marketing goldmine during an age of massive gender inequality.