Wine Drinking and Cholera.
THE fearful ravages of the cholera in Italy again, emphasize the importance of abstaining from intoxicating beverages. The national church festivals, occasions of much wine drinking on the part of the Italian populace, have been found noticeably to increase the mortality from cholera. In Naples the municipal authorities, on the occasion of one of the festivals, which occurred September 7 and 8, ordered the closing of the wine-shops along the line of marching, but, despite this precaution, there was much drinking, and "the result on the 9th was a highly increased mortality." Imprudence in eating as well as in drinking is, of course, a peril to health in cholera seasons as at other times, but at the present time in Europe, as on former occasions, it is again being demonstrated beyond question that the people whose bodies are most permeated with alcoholic poison are also most exposed to the cholera mortality.