London,-Feb. 18.
Giving evidence for the Royal Commission on Licensing, Sir George Newman, the chief medical officer of the Ministry of Health, spoke to-day of the great improve: ment which had. taken place in national habits and national health.
The English people, he declared, were becoming more sober, more healthy and longer lived. As to the evil effects of overdrinking, he stated that ill health during the past two hundred years had coincided with periods of alcoholic excess, mainly" spirit drinking, and that alcohol had made people more susceptible to pneumonia, tuberculosis and other diseases—Wire-Jess through Reuter. 2
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.