IT IS ESTABLISHED by custom and by the most recent physiological research that alcohol, as such, has its legitimate place in the sustentation both of the healthy and of the diseased organism. However, there is grave danger of excess from the multiplication of alcoholic drinks taken by the richer classes. In this paper, we put the question of the absolute alcoholic allowance for healthy adults in a somewhat crude and abstract form. We do this to compel the upper and middle classes, and their medical advisers, to look the facts of alcoholic consumption honestly in the face.  FE Anstie, Editor of The Practitioner (1868-1874)