METHODS OF CONTROL 73
that certain measures were very much more important
than others in the production of the sum-total of
effects.
THE ActuAL EFFECTS PRODUCED.
Before passing on to discuss the methods of control,
it will be well to describe briefly the cycle of changes
observed in the consumption of alcohol before, during,
and after the war, and its effects on sobriety. It is
convenient to take as a standard a mean of the 1912
and 1913 figures, and to record the data of subsequent
years in terms of this standard, taken as 100. And
firstly, what measure are we to take of the alcohol
consumed ? The simplest one is to adopt the per
capita consumption of alcohol, but this takes no account
of the fact that spirits, in proportion to the alcohol
they contain, are very much more intoxicating than
beer. In 1912 and 1913 the average consumption in
the United Kingdom was 27:3 gallons of beer and
0:685 gallon of spirits. Roughly speaking, one may
say that the quantity of beer mentioned contains five
times more alcohol than the spirits, whilst the beer
consumed in 1917 and 1918 contained four times more
alcohol than the spirits. Yet it probably accounts for
less than half of all the drunkenness. An enquiry was
made by the Central Control Board during the war*
on the relative importance of beer and spirits in the
causation of drunkenness, and 1,505 persons (1,032
males and 473 females) charged with drunkenness in
London and fourteen other large cities in England were
questioned. Intoxication was attributed to beer alone
* Cf.‘ Alcohol: Its Action on the Human Organism.” 1923, p. 11 5,