“Physician heal thyself”: drink, temperance and the medical question in the Victorian and Edwardian Church of England, 1830–1914 *

This paper examines the connection between medical research and temperance from the point of view of the Anglican temperance movement in three periods: (1) 1830–55, when Anglican clergymen resisted teetotalism in favour of mideration, in keeping with accepted medical opinion; (2) 1855–73, when a miniority of Anglican teetotal clergymen attempted unsuccesfully to convert the Anglican Church to teetotalism and prohibition, as the medical profession in theory, but not always in practice, disoruaged excessive therapeutic reliance on alcohol; and (3) 1873–1914, when the prestigious Church of England Temperance Society, with a dual basis, promoted teetotalism among the majority but affirmed the legitimacy of moderate drinking among the British medical and social elite.