1. 1. This, and the subsequent quotations from Cooke, are contained in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, Library copy of J. Heydon (1662 ). The English Physician's Guide, London, ('for the use and benefit of die meanest capacities'). I have not been able to ascertain the identity of Cooke, though it is interesting to speculate whether he might have been the hack writer and journalist (1703 -1756 ) who, theDNBnotes, spent his life in chronic debt, or the 'eccentric divine' (1722-83) who, theDNBnotes, had a spell in Bedlam: Vol. 4, pp. 1020-22.This paper was given at a symposium held in November 1984 to mark the centenary of the Society for the Study of Addiction. I have retained some of the informality of my text.
2. 2. For some perspectives seeD.M. George, J. Watney, and Porter Roy (1965 ). London Life in the Eighteenth century , London. (1965 ). London Life in the Eighteenth century , London; (1965 ). London Life in the Eighteenth century , Harmondsworth. pp.33 -35 . For historical levels of alcohol consumption, seeJ. A. Spring and D. H. Buss(1977). Three centuries of alcohol in the British Diet. Nature,219, 567-72.M. M. Glatt(1958). The English drink problem: its rise and decline through the ages. The British Journal of Addiction,4, 51-67.
3. 3. Gentleman's Magazine (1770 ). xl , 559 -61 .
4. 4. M. Bailey, and A. Ingram (1951 ), Boswell's Column; London, 169 . See also (1951 ). Boswell's Creative Gloom, and K. B. Rix (1951 ). James Boswell: lsquo;No man more easily hurt by alcohol than I am'.Journal of Alcoholism,10, 73-77.
5. 5. Quoted in Watney , op. cit. (ref. 2), 18 .