Genre:

News-Commentary; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Nutrition, Adulteration, Health, Railways, Medical Treatment, Nationalism, Cultural Geography

    Discusses the remarks made in the House of Commons by the statesman Charles Buxton who denied that London brewers were hostile to the beer improvement bill and that they felt competition with French wine and porter might 'check adulteration'. Punch thinks these are strong grounds for supporting the bill. Criticises Buxton for failing to distinguish 'getting drunk on beer, and getting drunk upon cheap claret', the former being a 'light matter, and with Englishmen a national and natural propensity', the latter being a 'most unnatural offence' and a 'deed of the blackest dye'. Responding to Samuel M Peto's claim that wine-drinking labourers abroad are less susceptible to intoxication, points out that it would be difficult to 'persuade an English workman to give up English beer'. The illustration shows a male figure wearing a beer barrel and sitting next to a large vessel labelled 'Doctors Stuff'. The figure complains that the more he's doctored the worse he gets.