The superintendent of the Massachusetts reformatory prison has compiled some startling and instructive statistics in regard to the drinking habits of the female prisoners in that institution. It appears that, out of 200 degraded women, 128 began their ruinous career with beer, 37 with whisky, 20 with wine, 8 with gin. Ninety-one began at the house of friends, 64 in saloons. Sixty-seven were Irish, 52 Irish-Americans, 7 negroes. Many of these women began drinking while employed at the mills, in the neighboring dram-shops. Beer had been the most common drink at first, but 181 had got to use whisky as their favorite, and some added chloroform to make the whisky hotter. One strong point brought out in the recitals of these wretched women was the sense of utter hopelessness as long as they were compelled to meet the ceaseless enticements of the bar-room and gin palace. The statements of these women showed what an appalling amount of tippling goes on even where there are no overt signs of actual intoxication. This tippling is practiced by great numbers of women. What many affect to think a mere harmless indulgence is the prolific source of the more developed evils. In a recent article in the London Lancet this noteworthy statement is made:— "Alongside of all the teetotalism that exists, there is an appalling amount of tippling that does not distinctly intoxicate, but saturates the principal organs and destroys them more quickly than would an occasional debauch."—N. Y. Observer.