The Great Gin Epidemic

Mandeville's description of gin as destructive was not controversial among the british alite. In other words, sure, poor people were getting drunk and sometimes dying because of gin, but look at how much it was helping the economy. Alcohol sumption carried the same health risks in the eighteenth century that it does to day. Over consumption and abuse still impacted people's lives and livelihoods. It also wasn't uncommon for liquor to be adulterated with things like sulphurous acid and turpentine.