Dr. Sullivan[23] has some important remarks on this subject from which
one cannot do better than freely quote. As a distinguished and
experienced Medical Officer in H. M. Prison Service, notably at
Holloway, where so many women have been under his care, Dr. Sullivan has
very special credentials, even if the internal evidence of his book did
not convince us. He says that:--
"The domestic occupations which are the chief field of women's
activities obviously allow ample opportunity for the continuance of
alcoholic habits formed prior to marriage. This is a matter of much
importance. For the ordinary existence of the working man's wife,
with its succession of pregnancies and sucklings, and the
management of a brood of children in cramped surroundings, will of
itself be very likely to promote tippling; and if a knowledge of
the effect of alcohol as an industrial excitant has been acquired
by the factory girl, it is pretty sure of further development in
the married woman. Instances of this sort, in which the discomforts
of the first pregnancy stimulate the growth of a rudimentary habit
of industrial drinking to confirmed intemperance, are tolerably
common in any wide experience of the alcoholic."
The following paragraph must also be quoted for its clear indication of
a matter which is of prime importance, which no one denies, and yet of
which no statesman or politician has begun to take cognizance:--
"The employment of women in the ordinary industrial occupations not
only involves a disorganization of their domestic duties if they
are married, but it also interferes with the acquisition of
housewifely knowledge during girlhood.
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