Note 68 — Chapter VIII

“Two patients in adjoining beds, one seventy-five, the other fifty, father and son, were suffering from diseased liver, and other effects of intemperance. The attention of the party (the governors, inspecting the Bedford Infirmary) being drawn to these cases, I observed that the elder would recover, and the younger would not. On being asked the grounds for my opinion, I said, the one is the son of a beer-drinking, the other of a buttermilk-drinking father. The event confirmed my anticipation. During the youth of the elder, he had never tasted beer or tea,—milk and buttermilk were then the people’s drink.”