"Because there is pain": Alcoholism, temperance and the Victorian physician

This paper will examine the early brief alliance and subsequent lengthy conflict between the medical profession and the temperance movement. Through examination of medical journals, government testimony and institutional reports, the divisions within the profession over the use of alcohol in therapeutics and over the consequences of legislated prohibition for the profession will be discussed. Finally, it will be demonstrated that the profession's conception of alcoholism as a medical concern, attended by research on the causes, classification and treatment of alcoholism, did not find widespread public acceptance, due largely to the doubt it cast upon the effectiveness of prohibition in ameliorating social ills.